Repeating part of your course, can affect practical issues such as your student funding entitlement and tuition fee liability and, if you are an international student, your student immigration permission.
If you interrupt your studies you may be required to repeat and attend part of your course when you resume your studies the following academic year (re-take in attendance). This often happens if a student does not complete a semester and interrupts their studies part-way though, before the start of an assessment period. Your School will advise you about the academic requirements, agree your date of interruption and the date when you can rejoin your course.
Even if you do not interrupt your studies, you may be required to re-sit assessments at the next available opportunity in order to progress onto the next academic year and this may require you to re-sit out of attendance for the some or all of the following academic year. Students who are are re-sitting out of attendance are not normally required to attend their course.
Medical and Dental students are usually required to re-take the whole academic year in attendance if they interrupt their studies or need to re-sit exams.
Contact the Student Support Officer for your School if you have questions about your course and academic options.
If you are required to re-sit out of attendance and are worried about how to remain engaged with your studies while you re-sit out of attendance, you could also contact your Personal Adviser, Tutor to discuss planning any revision. The QMUL Learning Development Team may also be able to help you plan this. Information about re-sitting out of attendance is also available on the Academic Registry site.
If you feel you should be given an opportunity to attend your classes again and your school does not approve this, you may decide to make a formal appeal. An appeal on this basis may not be successful, as students are expected to have arranged an interruption of studies if they are not fit enough to engage with their studies or sit exams. For more information about academic appeals, see the information on QMUL academic Appeal information. If you would like advice about whether you have grounds to appeal, contact Annie Mitchell in the Academic Advice Service at the Students’ Union.
This depends on whether you re-sit out of attendance or re-take with attendance.
For information choose from one of the following options:
Wherever your funding comes form, it's important to check if your funding will stop while you are re-sitting out of attendance or if this will continue while you re-sit out of attendance. Also find out if receiving funding for the additional re-sit period will mean that funding will not be available for a later year of your course as there may be a limit to the number of years the funding can be paid.
If you are funded by Student Finance England Funding different rules apply to undergraduate and postgraduate funding and its very important to check how your funding will be affected. This is explained further on our Student Funding Implications pages.
If you are an undergraduate student and you normally receive Student Finance England funding, you may usually rely on the Maintenance Loan to cover your personal maintenance costs, your rent and other costs. However, Student Finance England do not provide any funding, including the Maintenance Loan, to students while they are registered as re-sitting out of attendance. As this funding is not available, you will need to make alternative plans to support yourself during your re-sit period. The Student Finance England Disabled Students Allowance and the Queen Mary Bursary are also not available during this time.
You are not normally able to remain in the UK while you are re-sitting out of attendance as you are not required to attend your course. Further information about how your student visa is affected can be found in our Visa Implications and changes to your programme information for international students.
A tuition fee is not normally charged when a student is registered as re-sitting out of attendance.
Also read our information about Other Practicalities for information about the Queen Mary facilities you can use if you are re-sitting out of attendance.
Our Other Practicalities page has information about access to Queen Mary Facilities and other practical issues to consider when you are re-sitting out of attendance.
It is important to consider how you will support yourself during a re-sit period when you are out of attendance.
If there you are in the UK with Student Immigration Permission, it is important to check how this will be affected. We have information about this in our guidance on Visa and fee implications to changes of your programme for international students.
Tuition Fees are not usually charged for a re-take out of attendance period.
You may need to work to support yourself during a period out of attendance. Our Working during your Studies page has information about this.
However, if you are in the UK with Student Immigration Permission and are not attending your course you will not be able to remain in the UK to work as this permission would normally be curtailed and you would need to leave the UK. For information look at our Visa and fee implications to changes of your programme. Other status’ such as Visitor Status, do not permit work in the UK so always check your immigration status conditions before taking up employment in the UK.
If you receive UK government funding e.g., funding from Student Finance England, you must check how this will be affected by re-sitting out of attendance.
If you are re-sitting out of attendance, you are not normally entitled to any Government Student Funding during this time and will need to support yourself another way.
For more information about how undergraduate and postgraduate Student Finance England funding is affected and the options available check the information in our Student Funding Implications page.
If you receive funding from anywhere else, e.g., your government or another organisation who sponsors you, check that this funding will continue during a retake period and importantly, when you return to your course. If not, you will need to find alternative funds to pay for any tuition fee and for your maintenance. Alternative funding in the UK is very limited especially if you are an international student.
International students in the UK with Student Immigration Permission or as visitor are not entitled to claim any Welfare benefits as it is a breach of their immigration conditions. Students in the UK with any other type of immigration permission should always seek advice before making any claim.
The Welfare Benefit Social Security regulations prevent most full-time students registered on a full-time course from claiming any welfare benefits throughout their studies including during any re-take or re-sit, including when re-sitting out of attendance. However, the benefit rules do allow certain students to claim during their studies:
Students with dependent children are eligible. For information, visit our page for Students with Children.
Students with personal care or mobility needs and who meet the eligibility requirements may be entitled to claim a disability benefit called Personal Independence Payment. Students who are already in receipt of Personal Independence Payment (PIP) and who already receive other benefits such as Universal Credit may be able to continue these claims during their studies. We have more information about claiming PIP and other benefits in our Extra Money: Disability and Ill Health section.
At Queen Mary there are no part-time undergraduate courses but there are part-time postgraduate courses. There are no specific rules that exclude part-time students from claiming welfare benefits during any part of their part-time course although students must meet the general eligibility rules for each Welfare Benefit. However some benefits, such as Universal Credit, can require a person to be available for work and to meet job-search activities. If a part-time student cannot or does not meet these requirements, their benefit claim may not be allowed or an ongoing claim may have sanctions applied and these reduce the amount of benefit payable.
Please note that student loans and some grants, including the Student Finance England Maintenance Loan for undergraduate study and the Masters Loan or Doctoral Loan count as income for income based Welfare benefits and this income will reduce the amount of income based benefits payable. This income should always be declared to avoid overpayments being made. Postgraduate students can find more information about this in the Postgraduate Funding information.
You can contact a Welfare Adviser to discuss your circumstances.
If you hold Student Immigration permission for the UK then it is important to consider how a change to your studies can affect this.
You can find information about this on ourVisa and Fee implications and changes to your programme information.
If you intend to spend time outside of the UK and you hold EU Pre-Settled Status check how absences from the UK can affect this in our information about the EU Settlement Scheme.
If you receive Student Finance England funding any other type of funding, it is very important to find out if you can continue to receive this funding for your re-take period.
Student Finance England apply different rules apply to undergraduate and postgraduate funding. For example:
Key issue for undergraduate students: If you usually receive Student Finance England funding, the Maintenance Loan would normally remain available for a retake period providing attendance is required. This may be available for a full year or for part of the year depending on your course attendance. However Student Finance England limit the number of years that a student can receive the undergraduate SFE Tuition Fee Loan loan. This may not be automatically be available to you for a retake year or part year if you have repeated before or you have any previous degree level study on an earlier course. If you rely on this loan to pay your tuition fees, first contact Student Finance England to ask if this loan will be available to you for the re-take period. Also read our Student Funding implications page for further information about repeat study and the standard tuition fee loan entitlement. This includes how to request an additional year of tuition fee loan if you have exhausted your standard entitlement and your retake is due to compelling personal reasons.
Key issue for postgraduate students: Student Finance England Postgraduate loans are also limited and additional extra payments of loan are not available for retake periods. Our Student Funding Implications page has more detailed information about how the funding is affected and the options available.
Tuition Fee are usually charged if a student re-takes a period in attendance. You will need to ensure you have sufficient funds to cover this aditional fee as well as for your own maintenance costs. Have a look at out Tuition Fee implications section for further information. You will need to ensure you have sufficient funds to cover these as well as for your own maintenance costs.
The Fees Office manage tuition fee payments and charges. If you have questions about this, you can contact them by email: fees@qmul.ac.uk or call: +44 (0)20 7882 7676. They are located on the ground floor of the IQ East Court Building, on Mile End Road.
If you are an undergraduate student and and normally receive a Student Finance England Tuition Fee Loan to pay your tuition fees, it's important to check if this loan will be available to pay your fees for the re-take period. Student Finance England limit the number of years this loan is available and it may not be automatically available to you for a re-take period if you have previously repeated a year or part year of your course or you have previously studied on an earlier degree level course. If the Tuition Fee Loan is not available, you will need to pay your tution fee yourself or by other means.
Student Finance England Postgraduate loans are also limited and and additional payments of loan are not available for a retake period.
You may need more time in the UK to complete your course than your current visa allows, and will need to check how to extend or apply for new Student Immigration Permission to cover the additional time required to complete your course. You can find information about this in our international Visa implications to changes of your programme page.
As well as checking how your funding, tuition fee liability and student visa may be affected, there are some other factors to consider if you are an EU national, are a parent or student entitled to welfare benefits or will need to find work while you re-sit out of attendance.
Our Other Practicalities page has information about other practical issues including access to Queen Mary Facilities.
If you hold EU Settled or Pre-settled Status and intend to spend time outside of the UK, our EU Settlement Scheme information explains how these can be affected by absences from the UK.
If you are an International student in the UK with Student Immigration Permission or as visitor you are not entitled to claim any welfare benefits as it is a breach of your immigration conditions. Students in the UK with any other type of immigration permission should always seek advice before making any claim.
The Welfare Benefit Social Security regulations prevent most full-time students from claiming any welfare benefits during their studies. This includes during any re-take or re-sit periods, including re-sitting out of attendance. However, the benefit rules do allow certain students to claim during their studies:
At Queen Mary there are no part-time undergraduate courses but there are part-time postgraduate courses. There are no specific rules that exclude part-time students from claiming welfare benefits during their part-time course although students must meet the general eligibility rules for each Welfare Benefit. However some benefits, such as Universal Credit, can require a person to be available for work and to meet job-search activities regardless of their study commitments. If these requirements are not met, a benefit claim may be refused or an ongoing claim may have sanctions applied to reduce the amount of benefit payable.
Please note that student loans, including the Student Finance England Maintenance Loan for undergraduate study and Student Finance England Masters Loan or Doctoral Loan all count as income for income-based Welfare Benefits and will reduce the amount of income based benefits payable. If you are entitled to this student funding, it counts as income even if you choose not to take it out. This income should always be declared to the relevant benefit department to avoid overpayments being made.
Postgraduate students can find further information about benefits in the Postgraduate Funding pages.
You can also contact a Welfare Adviser for advice and to discuss your circumstances.
Have a look at our Working during your studies information.
- you will be re-sitting out of attendance, you will not normally be able to remain in the UK during this time as your visa/permission may be curtailed, so working in the UK will not be an option for you. Our Visa and fee implications to changes of your programme has information about how your visa is affected.
- you are required to re-sit in attendance, take a look at our page, Does my immigration permission allow me to work for information including the type of work permitted.