Transferring

If you transfer to another undergraduate course within BCU, the tuition fee will stay the same. If you transfer between courses mid-year, and are able to continue on the new course within the same academic year, the total fee for the year should cover your attendance on both courses.

If you are unable to transfer mid-year and are required to start the new course at the beginning of the following academic year, you may have some fees to pay in respect of your old course, as well as the full fee when you start the new course the following year. Speak to the Advice Team to find out more about your fee liability if you leave during the 2014/15 academic year.

If you transfer to a course at another university, you are effectively withdrawing from BCU and the amount of fees you will have to pay will depend on your official date of withdrawal.

If you transfer mid-year, you could find yourself liable for fees at both universities and you should check this with the University to which you are transferring. Please note - you are only entitled to a tuition fee loan for the terms you are in attendance at University. If you transfer to a course at another university, you are advised to check your fee liability with both Universities because the tuition fee charged may be higher than your tuition fee loan entitlement.

Provided the relevant courses and/or universities have endorsed your course transfer, you should be able to transfer your student finance entitlement to allow you to receive the tuition fee loan and any loans/grants for living costs in respect of your new course.

If the transfer means that you will be studying for longer than the period for which you had originally been awarded student finance, you may not receive funding for the whole of the new course and your previous study (see below) will be taken into account in any calculation of your student finance entitlement.

Your Faculty at BCU will notify Student Finance England of your change of course (if you are transferring within BCU) or the last date of attendance at BCU (if you are transferring to another university). In the latter case, your new university will also need to send Student Finance England a form called a Notification of Student Transfer.

Eligibility for student finance will depend on your previous study history. The Government provides funding for the duration of a course of study plus one additional year if needed. Therefore, if a course has a duration of three years, you would be entitled to 4 years of funding in total (3 + 1 = 4). So if you transfer at the end of your first year of study to start a new three year course and you haven't previously repeated a year or studied on a higher education course prior to this one, you should be entitled to the full student finance package for the whole of your new course (subject to you meeting the other eligibility requirements).

However, if you have undertaken a previous course at higher education level, or perhaps repeated any period of study, your entitlement to funding will be reduced to reflect this previous study.

For example, if you have previously studied for two years, you would then be entitled to a further two years of funding (3 + 1 = 4 - 2 = 2). If the new course has a three year duration period, you would only be entitled to the maintenance loan* during the first year of your new course. You would then be entitled to full support for the remainder of the course.

Provided you don't already have a degree, you can get a Maintenance Loan for as long as you're studying a course of higher education. In addition, even if you are not entitled to the Tuition Fee Loan or Maintenance Grant you would still be entitled to receive the Childcare Grant and the Parent's Learning Allowance.

If you have compelling personal reasons (CPR), some periods of study can be disregarded from this calculation and we would urge you to speak to the Advice Team.