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.

Year abroad

Many undergraduate students have the opportunity to study at another institution as part of their degree, this is usually undertaken in an additional year of study. Browse the list of courses that offer a year abroad.

The available institutions vary based on the subject area a student is studying. A student would become ineligible to receive further Federal Student Aid if they elected to attend an institution not listed as eligible.

Any study in the US means a student is no longer eligible to receive funding, this means any student that elects to attend a US institution will no longer be able to receive funding. Due to this, the Mathematics BSc that includes a year in the US is ineligible for funding in all years.

Industry placements

Both undergraduate and postgraduate students have the opportunity to undertake an Industry placement as part of their programme. As with a year abroad, this cannot take place in the US if you wish to maintain eligibility for Federal Student Aid. An undergraduate Industry Placement Year typically takes place after two years of study, a student electing to undertake this in the US would be ineligible to receive Federal Student Aid for the Placement Year and also the subsequent year(s) of the course on campus.

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.