Policies

Maintaining eligibility

In order to continue receiving your loan, or to re-apply for a loan in the next academic year, you need to maintain your eligibility as set out by the lender and to meet the criteria set out below.

Enrolment status

You must continue to be enrolled on at least a part-time (50% of full-time or more) basis at the University of Leicester to remain eligible for student loans.

Satisfactory Academic Progress

Each loan disbursement is subject to you maintaining Satisfactory Academic Progress (SAP) on your course, as determined by your academic department. The US Loan team will confirm this with your department before releasing any subsequent disbursements to you. Read more on the University's Satisfactory Academic Progress policy.

Withdrawal and refunds

When you withdraw from a course we must recalculate your Financial Aid cost of attendance (COA) based on the length of time you have studied. It is therefore important that if you choose to withdraw from your course, in addition to following the University's withdrawal procedures, you must also notify us by email (USloans@le.ac.uk) so that we can provide the necessary information to the US Department of Education.

Once your cost of attendance has been recalculated you may be required to repay some of your Federal loans to the lender or guarantee agency. It may also be the case that the University is required to return payments taken for tuition fees directly to the lender or guarantee agency; if this is the case you may be asked to make an additional fee payment to the University to replace these funds.

If you have taken private loans, you will not receive any payments that were due to you on or after the date of withdrawal from your course.

Please also refer to the University's withdrawal refund policy.

Changing to an ineligible course

If you have taken US Federal loans and then change to a course that the University is not eligible to administer loans for, we will recalculate your Financial Aid cost of attendance based on the length of time you have studied on the eligible course.

Once your cost of attendance has been recalculated you may be required to repay some of your Federal loans to the lender or guarantee agency. It may also be the case that the University is required to return payments taken for tuition fees directly to the lender or guarantee agency; if this is the case you may be asked to make an additional fee payment to the University to replace these funds. Transferring to an ineligible course also occurs if a PhD student elects to undertake any fieldwork in the US or complete their writing up in the US.

Periods of Study away from the University

All courses that involve more than 25% of study away from the University of Leicester are ineligible; this includes periods of study abroad and industry placement that are for more than 25% of the total course length. This means the following courses are all ineligible:

Regulations 34 CFR 600.52 and 34 CFR 600.54 permit up to 25% of a program to be provided by an ineligible institution that meets the requirements outlined in 34 CFR 600.52 or an eligible institution in the United States. This means undergraduate courses including a Year in Industry and some undergraduate courses including a Year Abroad are eligible for Federal Student Aid as the Year in Industry is at most 25% of the total program length.

Whether a course inclusive of a Year Abroad is eligible for Federal Student Aid depends on whether the Year Abroad is classed as Integrated or Nonintegrated. An Integrated Year Abroad counts towards your overall degree classification whereas the Nonintegrated Year Abroad does not.

If you are unsure if the Year Abroad of a course you are looking to enroll on or have enrolled on is Integrated or Nonintegrated you should contact either your academic department or the Admissions Team.

Completing your course and exit counselling

When you have finished your studies at the University, either prior to graduating or following the withdrawal from your course, you will need to complete online exit counselling. This gives you important information about your continuing obligations and the repayment of your loans. Online exit counselling is provided by the US Department of Education.

Further information on repaying your loan is also available from the US Department of Education.

In-school deferment

You may be able to postpone repayment of your Federal Loans while you are studying full-time. Download and complete the relevant deferent forms and email them to us (USloans@le.ac.uk) to sign and stamp and return them to your lenders.

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