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Understanding SFE's additional funding for students with 'Compelling Personal Reasons’

Written by: SU Advice https://www.upsu.com/advice/

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It can be around this time of year that students are informed that there are problems with their Tuition Fee Loan. The University of Plymouth will email to highlight that a payment hasn’t been made and that can lead to sanctions if ignored.

When it comes to Student Finance funding Tuition Fees the formula is the ordinary length of a course, plus a gift year, minus previous study at higher education level. If you have already used your gift year or have previously had repeat years or previous study, it can lead to a shortfall of funding. Any available funding will always be applied from the end of your course working backwards, so the latter year will be covered, and the shortfall will be applied to your next year.

However, SFE have discretion to award an additional year of tuition fee funding, in addition to their standard entitlement to be allocated, if you were unable to complete a year (or more than one year) due to compelling personal reasons. 

If the reasons are due to a personal situation, usually unforeseen, this is known as being due to ‘Compelling Personal Reasons’ (CPR). Compelling personal reasons could be:

  • Bereavement
  • Mental health issues
  • Health issues
  • Family crisis
  • Caring responsibilities
  • Pregnancy, please note this list is not exhaustive.

This is an evidence-based process, so you will need to ensure you have appropriate evidence to back up what you are stating. As an SU Advice Team, we can send you a template CPR letter and give you guidance on what to include. We can then read a draft and offer comments to help make your letter as strong as possible. We can also look for potential evidence you could use that you may not have considered before.

It is important you don’t bury your head in the sand if you find yourself in this situation. If you have a shortfall in funding, the problem won’t disappear. But we can help you tackle it and explore if CPR is an option for you.

 

You can see more information on Compelling Personal Reasons here.

 


 

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