Tuition Fees HELP please

Former Member

Hello
A friend of mine has just started university for the 3rd time.
Dropped out of 1 university 06/7 after 1 year
Dropped out of 2nd university 07/8 after 1 term
Is now starting at 3rd university (08/9).
The student loans company have agreed to fund his maintenance loan but will not pay his tuition fees. Apparently this is because he has dropped out twice from other institutions. They are agreeing to fund years 2 and 3 of this degree but not his 1st. In which case he has to come up with £3100 pretty sharpish.
This is called the 3+1 rule, basically they will fund 3 years of study and 1 of mitigating circumstances.
Has this happened to anyone here? What did you do? deferring isn't really an option at this stage I don't think...
Or is there some way of getting around this?
The second year (07/8) seems hardly fair as they never funded him for a whole year, just 1 term...

Thanks very much, any replies much appreciated!

Former Member

as far as i am aware this is standard practice of the student loans company and there is not much you can do about it, unless your friend can show that there were mitagting circumstances such as health or a death in the family or the birth of a child or such, which would have led to them dropping out...and even then i'm not sure if much would happen

Former Member

2nd time round was due to an illness in the family... And I think he can prove that he was trying to transfer to a university nearer home but he was like 10 days late or something. He should have email contact etc...
Thanks though x

Former Member

Why didn't he start in the second year of his new uni?

Former Member

We're talking 3 fairly different courses here!