The following information is for Undergraduate students and refers to Student Finance England. If you are funded by another awarding authority, you should contact that authority as the terms and conditions may differ.
How does resitting, resubmitting and/or repeating affect my funding?
Resitting or resubmitting: If you are resitting exams or resubmitting assessments (but are not in attendance), there are no tuition fee costs for these modules and you will not be eligible for a loan for any resit/resubmission modules.
Repeating: You will be expected to attend all timetabled events and follow the full assessment requirements for any module being repeated, which means that you will pay tuition fees for those modules. Tuition fee costs are calculated on the number of credits you repeat – please contact tuitionfeeenquiries@kent.ac.uk for more details.
A mix of repeating and resitting/resubmitting: If you are repeating some modules and resitting/resubmitting on others, you will only pay tuition fees on the modules you are repeating and you will be expected to attend all timetabled events on those modules.
Trail repeating: If you have progressed onto the next stage of your course and are also trailing a module from the previous stage (by repeating it in attendance), please contact tuitionfeeenquiries@kent.ac.uk to discuss any financial implications.
Important points to note for repeating students
If you are repeating the whole of your previous stage on a full time basis, you will be considered in attendance all year and charged the relevant full time fee.
If you are a full time student repeating only a part of your previous stage, you will be reassessed and maintenance support will be calculated based on the terms that you are required (by the University) to be in attendance. Any tuition fees will be calculated based on the number of credits being repeated.
Funding example
For example, if you are only required to attend in Spring term of the repeat year and you are
absent for Autumn and Summer terms, living cost support is automatically payable for the Spring term.
There is no automatic entitlement to living cost support for the Autumn and Summer terms although Student Finance England, where it considers it appropriate to do so, may exercise its discretion in the student’s favour (regulation 116(12)).
Further examples can be found below in the What does this mean for me section.
If you are on a full time course only repeating part of the year, you will still be considered as studying on a full time course by Student Finance England but you will be classified as a full time student repeating part time. The University will inform Student Finance England via a repetition change of circumstance (CoC) that you are on a full time course repeating part time. Your tuition and maintenance will be reassessed based on the information provided on the CoC form.
We will endeavour to inform Student Finance England as soon as possible after your student record has been updated on KentVision. However, please be aware that at the start of an academic year this change can take between 20 to 30 working days to be processed by Student Finance England, so your application may not have been fully reassessed by the start of the first term. This could lead to an overpayment of funds which you may need to repay.
If you are repeating a year from a course that is normally full time, please continue to apply as a full time student (even if you are taking less than a full years credits whilst you are repeating). You should only make a part time application if you are studying part time throughout the length of your whole course.
As a student repeating a year, it is important you check that you have enough years of funding entitlement to complete your repeat year. If you don’t have enough entitlement you may need to self-fund the year.
If you are resitting exams or resubmitting assessments only (ie you are not in attendance), you are not eligible for a student loan in the year that you are resitting/resubmitting.
What does this mean for me?
Repeating part time on a full time course with no teaching in the
Autumn term
If you are repeating a full time course on a part time basis and do not have teaching in the Autumn term, we will contact Student Finance England so that your loan can be reassessed based on the eligibility guidance. We will not confirm that you are actively studying on your course until your return in the Spring term.
At this point, your loan should have been reassessed and you will be aware of your new maintenance amount which will be reduced to reflect the fact you are not attending during the Autumn term.
Repeating part time on a full time course with teaching in the Autumn term
If you are repeating a full time course on a part time basis and have teaching in the Autumn term, we will contact Student Finance England so that your loan can be reassessed based on the eligibility guidance. We will also confirm your registration to release your maintenance funds. If you are not in attendance in the Spring or Summer terms, you would not be eligible for maintenance funds for these terms.
Repeating part time on a full time course with teaching in the Autumn and Spring term but no teaching or exams in the Summer term
If you are repeating a full time course on a part time basis and have teaching in the Autumn and Spring terms but no teaching or exams in the Summer term, we will contact Student Finance England so that your loan can be reassessed based on the eligibility guidance and we will also confirm registration to release your maintenance funds. If you have no exams or teaching in the Summer term you are considered not in attendance and you would not be eligible for maintenance for this term.
What is the effect of previous study or further repeat years on my statutory funding?
The number of years you are entitled to student funding is limited. The general rule for working out your student funding entitlement is that each student is eligible to funding for the length of their course plus one extra year (minus any years of previous study).
Funding example
This example shows how entitlement is calculated:
If you are studying a 3 year course, your entitlement would be 3 years + 1 year (known as a gift year) = 4 years.
If you had studied one year of a course at another institution, your entitlement would be 3 years (at Kent) + 1 year (gift year) – 1 year of previous study (at another institution) = 3 years in total.
Repeating or previous study can affect your funding entitlement in relation to tuition fee loans, Maintenance Grants, bursaries and scholarships but does not affect supplementary grants, such as Disabled Students Allowance, Childcare Grant, Adult Dependents’ Grants and Parents’ Learning Allowance.
What if I don’t have enough years of funding?
If you are repeating a year and do not have the funding entitlement to cover the year, Student Finance England has the discretion to continue your funding for the repeat year as long as you provide evidence verifying your mitigating circumstances to Student Finance. Common reasons for applying for an extra year under compelling personal reasons include:
- a caring responsibility
- bereavement
- illness
- mental health
- pregnancy
This list does not include all acceptable reasons, and the Student Loans Company will review each application on an individual basis. However, applications cannot be based on:
- financial hardship
- not liking your course
- reasons within your control
Further information
If you have any questions or require further information about your student funding, please contact the Kent Union Advice Centre or visit their finance webpage.