The information on this page is for Undergraduate home and home/EU students (England domiciled students) paying the home rate of tuition fee.
Students paying the overseas rate of tuition fee should the international fee payer implication page.
Interrupting, retaking in attendance, transferring, or withdrawing from your course can affect your tuition fee liability for the year in which you make the change and the year you return to your programme of study.
How much tuition fee you are liable to pay depends on the date you interrupt, transfer, or withdraw and the date you resume your studies. If you receive Student Funding and use this to pay your tuition fee, or receive the Tuition Fee Loan to pay your fees, it's also important to check how this will be affected by your change in studies.
The information below is taken from Queen Mary Tuition Fee Regulations and applies to students paying the home rate of tuition fee.
Semester dates are listed in the Queen Mary calendar.
If you owe tuition fees to Queen Mary at the point of interruption or withdrawal, you become liable to pay these unless Student Finance England pay instead.
If you interrupt your studies and are self-funded and have paid more tuition fees than you are liable for, these will not normally be refunded. Instead, they will be retained by Queen Mary until you resume studies. However, if you are getting a Tuition Fee Loan from SFE they should only pay Queen Mary the amount you are liable for. If they overpay, they should reclaim the overpayment, so your overall student loan debt is reduced. It is advisable to check your fee payments are correct and also ensure you do not have any outstanding tuition fee to pay as this will prevent you from re-enrolling the following year. If you think there is an error contact the Queen Mary Fees Office (fees@qmul.ac.uk) to check that they have received the correct amount of Tuition Fee Loan from SFE. If the wrong amount has been paid this will need to be corrected.
If you are eligible for the student finance tuition fee loan, you can use this to pay your tuition fees in three instalments over the academic year. Students who are not eligible for student finance or who choose to self- fund can pay:
• in full before or at enrolment • in instalments, with 50% paid before enrolment and the remaining 50% by 31st January (for programmes starting in September) • in instalments, with 50% paid before enrolment and the remaining 50% by 30th April (for programmes starting in January) • with agreement in advance from the Fees Office, in eight instalments, with 25% paid before or at enrolment and the balance in equal monthly instalments with the final instalment due by 30th April (this includes students for whom a university fee loan is not available due to their previous study) • Home students who choose the option of paying by 8 instalments will be charged a fee of £150 if the payments are not up to date by the 31st January and they have not informed the Finance Department of the reason for the delay.
However, you may end up paying more tuition fee for your course than expected because where course attendance is required for a retake period, a tuition fee will be charged.
If you will be returning to attend the full academic year, the full tuition fee is charged. However, if you resume your studies part way through an academic year, you may be required to pay less. For example if you resume in in January, you may only be liable to pay 75% of the tuition fee or less. If you resume in May, it could be 50%.
If you are eligible for the Student Finance England Tuition Fee Loan, you can choose to request the actual amount of Tuition Fee Loan required on your application rather than choosing the maximum available. If you decide to do this make sure you ask the Queen Mary Fees Office for the the correct amount of tuition fee you need to pay.
If you don't request enough Tuition Fee Loan to cover your tuition fees, the Fees Office will contact you ask you to pay the additional fee at some point during the academic year. If you are contacted before the end of May of the same year, you should be able to alter the amount of Tuition Fee Loan requested to cover the shortfall. However, Student Finance England may refuse to any additional Tuition Fee Loan if you request this after the end of May, the loan request deadline. If you have a good reason for making a late request, they can consider this on a case by case at their discretion. Therefore to avoid this complication you may decide to request the maximum Tuition Fee Loan to allow Student Finance England and Queen Mary the flexibility to request/pay the correct amount of Tuition Fee loan required up to a maximum of £9,250.
There is more information about tuition fee payments in our Tuition Fee Payment pages.
You should make sure you have sufficient funding in place to pay your tuition fees for when you resume your study. Tuition Fees are charged each year of the course where attendance is required.
If you are required to re-take a year or a part year of study with attendance, a tuition fee will be charged. If you normally rely on the Student Finance England Tuition Fee Loan to pay your fees you should make sure you are entitled to receive this loan again to pay for your retake year.
If this is your first-degree level course and this is your first retake of a year with attendance, you should be eligible to receive the Tuition Fee Loan for your repeat period of study as Student Finance England provide one additional year of Tuition Fee Loan to use in this circumstance. This is often called a gift year or a plus one year. Check your entitlement with Student Finance England to ensure this is available to you. However, you will not automatically be entitled to a Tuition Fee Loan for your re-take year if this is the second time you are retaking a year/part year of your course in attendance or you have any previous study on an earlier degree level course. Again it is advisable to check your entitlement with Student Finance England.
If compelling personal reasons have caused you to re-take the year or part year (in attendance), you should read the section "My studies have been affected by Compelling Personal Circumstances" on our Undergraduate Funding implications information. This explains how to ask Student Finance England to consider awarding you an additional year of Tuition Fee Loan called a Compelling Personal Reasons year or CPR for short.
There is no charge for re-sit exams. You will be automatically registered for re-sits if you are required to sit them. If you do not feel able to do your re-sits, for example because of ill-health, you need to submit a claim for Extenuating Circumstances; if you do not do this, and you do not sit your exams, or you just opt out of the re-sit via MySIS, you will have a failed attempt.