Student finance and enrolment

No. We should receive confirmation of your tuition fee loan automatically.

If your enrolment is showing as ‘complete’, we've received confirmation of how your fees are being paid. You don’t need to do anything further.

If your enrolment is still ‘in progress’, it should update to ‘complete’ once your tuition fee loan is confirmed. This should take no more than a week. You should also check your enrolment confirmation screen in case there are other holds blocking the completion of your enrolment.

If it is your status is still showing 'in progress' a week after your tuition fee loan has been approved, contact 0115 848 8707 for advice. We may need to see your student finance entitlement letter, so make sure you have this to hand when you call.

Your enrolment status will remain ‘in progress’, but you'll still be able to start your course as normal.

Students waiting for a tuition fee loan are allowed to remain 'in progress' for about 8 weeks.  After this time, they'll be deactivated. This should be plenty of time to sort out your tuition fee loan with student finance.

To make sure you're not deactivated too soon, you need to have made it clear when you enrol, that you're paying your fees using a tuition fee loan. If you didn't select this option when you enrolled, email Registry Enrolment. Provide details of your student ID, and we'll update this for you.

We'll send you emails about your enrolment status and outstanding tuition fee loan. You'll keep getting these emails until we resolve the situation. You must read these emails and follow the instructions given. It's your responsibility to:

• check the progress of your student finance application, and
• provide any information or evidence requested on the to-do list on your student finance portal.

If your tuition fee loan still isn't confirmed by early November, we may ask you to set up a payment plan for your fees. You need to cover your tuition fees to avoid us deactivating you.

Use the student finance online guide to find out:

• how to check the status of your student finance application, and
• how to log on to your student finance portal.

You'll be able to see:

• what stage your application has reached, and
• a to-do list of any information or evidence you need to provide.

Call student finance if:

• there's nothing on your to-do list, but
• you submitted the application over six weeks ago.

Email Student Financial Support or call us on 0115 848 2494 if:

• you're confused by what you're told, or
• you discover an issue with your eligibility for a tuition fee loan.

We may offer you an appointment with one of our advisers if there's a problem with your eligibility. This could be due to previous study or your residence status.

If your student finance portal and entitlement letter are showing that the fee loan payable to the University is zero, this could be because:

1. You have made an error and selected that you did not want to apply for the tuition fee loan. In this case, you need to contact Student Finance and request the tuition fee loan. They'll usually ask you to complete a separate tuition fee loan request form, or
2. Student finance may have decided you're ineligible for the tuition fee loan. This could be due to previous study or some other reason. In this case, you shouild call 0115 848 2494 for advice.

You should receive the first instalment once NTU has confirmed your registration. Student Finance England will only ask the University to confirm registration once they have:

• approved your student finance application, and
• advised that you're eligible to receive a maintenance loan.

The University will only confirm your registration once you:

• your enrolment status is 'Complete', and
• you have activated your NTU student card.

See our step-by-step guide to getting your student finance.

The first instalment of your maintenance loan should arrive in your bank account around 3-5 days after your course start date. This is assuming that:

• you're eligible for a maintenance loan, and
• the ‘View Payments’ screen on your student finance portal is showing that your loan is ‘ready to be paid’, and
• you've enrolled online and your enrolment confirmation screen is showing your enrolment is 'complete'
• you've collected and activated your NT Student Card.

You won't get your maintenance loan while your enrolment status is showing as ‘in progress’.

If you're expecting a maintenance loan but haven't yet received it, there could be several reasons.

1. Student Finance England has not yet scheduled your payments

This will be the case if they are still verifying your payment details. Before they can release your payments, they need to check:

• your National Insurance number, and
• your bank details.

You can check your student finance portal to see if the status is showing as 'Ready for Payment'.

2. The University has not confirmed your registration

We'll only confirm registration once:

• your enrolment is 'complete', and
• you've activated your NTU Student Card.

If your maintenance loan hasn't come through and you're struggling financially, contact us. Email Student Financial Support or call 0115 848 2494 for advice.

There are several reasons your maintenance loan may be lower than you expected.

1. You may have been provisionally assessed for just the basic loan

This is the part which is not household income assessed.

• If you're living away from home, this will be £4,651pa.
• If you're living at home, it will be £3,698.

This could be because:

• the household income assessment takes 6-8 weeks to complete, and
• student finance has decided to pay you some money to live on while they do the full income assessment.

If this is the case, you'll receive an updated entitlement letter when the full assessment has been done. This will show any extra income-assessed loan added on. This is standard procedure where applications are received later than the May deadline. Find out more about how this works, and what to look out for.

2. You may have applied for only the non-means-tested loan and not requested the income-assessed part

Some students do this in error. If this is the case:

• you must update your application to request the income-assessed loan, and
• you or your sponsor must provide household income details so an assessment can be done.

You should be able to find out more by logging on to your student finance portal.

This means there is an outstanding issue that needs resolving.

One common reason is that NTU has no confirmation of how your tuition fees are being paid. If you're using an undergraduate tuition fee loan from your national Student Finance Service, we need confirmation of this. Only then will your enrolment will show as ‘complete’.

The action you need to take depends on your circumstances.

If you have not yet applied for a tuition fee loan

Apply now. You can find links to the various national student finance services below. They typically take six to eight weeks to assess applications.

• Student Finance England
• Student Finance Wales
• Student Finance Northern Ireland
• Student Awards Agency for Scotland

If you’re still waiting for your tuition fee loan to be approved

What you need to do will depend on how long it's been since you applied.

• If it was more than six weeks ago, log on to your student finance portal. See if there are any updates or things you need to do to progress your application. If there's nothing on your to-do list on the portal, then contact Student Finance England. Ask them whether there are any issues with your application.
• If it was less than six weeks ago, you're probably still being assessed. You'll need to wait until it's been processed. Your enrolment status will show as ‘in progress’ until your tuition fee loan has been confirmed to NTU. In the meantime, you will continue to get emails from NTU regarding your enrolment status.

Contact us if you have any queries about your eligibility for student finance. Email Student Financial Support or call 0115 848 2494.

If your tuition fee loan has already been approved

Call our fees and funding helpline on 0115 848 8707 if:

• you've had confirmation of your tuition fee loan from Student Finance, but
• your enrolment status is not showing as 'complete'.

We'll investigate and advise you on your next steps. We may need to see your student finance entitlement letter, so make sure you have this to hand when you call.

4. Student finance has advised you are not eligible for the fee loan

Contact us if you have any queries about your eligibility for student finance. Email Student Financial Support or call 0115 848 2494. Previous study or your residence status may be affecting your eligibility.

Yes. You can still:

• get your NTU Student Card
• attend lectures and classes
• have full access to all NTU buildings
• take full part in academic and social life as a student.

However, we won't confirm your registration and attendance to the Student Loans Company. That means they won't release any maintenance funding until your enrolment is complete.

We know students can have funding delays for many reasons. We'll allow time for processing. If you declared you're planning to pay your tuition fees using the tuition fee loan, we'll wait up to eight weeks. That's the time needed by student finance to assess and approve your tuition fee loan.

You will receive reminder emails from the University asking you to:

• keep checking on your student finance application, and
• make sure there's nothing outstanding that you need to provide.

Call us on 0115 848 2494 at any time for advice on:

• your student finance application, and
• your eligibility for the tuition fee loan.

We need confirmation of how your fees are being paid by 10 November. If we don't receive it, we'll deactivate your student account on Sunday 12 November.

If we get no confirmation of how you'll pay your tuition fees, we will:

• deactivate your student account, and
• withdraw you from your course.

We won't do this without warning. We'll contact you several times with advice on what to do to avoid deactivation.

If you declared you're paying your tuition fees using the Undergraduate Tuition Fee Loan, we'll delay deactivation until 12 November. This should allow enough time for your tuition fee loan to be approved by Student Finance.

If the loan still isn't approved by early November, we'll email you with advice on what to do to avoid deactivation.

If your enrolment isn't complete by the 12 November deadline, we will:

• assume you're not an active student in 2023/24, and
• amend your record in the following two stages:

The first stage is deactivation. This results in loss of access to:

• NOW
• your University email
• library and University buildings.

You'll still have access to online enrolment and online payment. This is to allow you the opportunity to complete your enrolment.

The second stage is withdrawal. This happens seven days after deactivation.  As well losing access to:

• NOW
• your university email
• library and University buildings.

The following will also happen:

• your student record will be archived, and
• your enrolment status will change to '08 – written off after lapse of time'.

At this stage you'll need to seek advice. The process of reinstatement requires manual intervention.

Deactivation only happens if we have no confirmed plan for your tuition fee payments.

This needs to be either:

• confirmation of an approved tuition fee loan from Student Finance, or
• confirmation that you'll pay the tuition fees direct to NTU on future dates as part of an agreed instalment plan.

If you think your tuition fee loan won't be confirmed by the 10 November, you can set up a payment plan. Call the University's Income Team on 0115 848 6500 and select option four.

The Finance Income team will:

• take your payment details over the phone, and
• agree to take money from your account for fees in two instalments in January and April.

On becoming fully enrolled, you'll be subject to our fee payment conditions.

Once your tuition fee loan is finally approved, call the Finance Income team again on 0115 848 6500 to cancel the payment plan and ensure no money is taken from your account.

If your tuition fee loan is still not approved by the time your first fee payment is due to be collected in January, you should take the following steps.

1.  Contact Finance on 0115 848 6500. Update them on your situation and discuss your payment plan.

2.  Book an appointment with one of our Student Finance Advisers. They can discuss your eligibility and progress with your student finance application.

On Sunday 12 November, many students will have their student accounts deactivated, losing access to:

• NOW
• their NTU email
• the library and other University buildings.

Most are deactivated because we hadn't received confirmation of their tuition fee loan from the Student Loans Company. They still have access to online enrolment and online payment.

If your account is deactivated because we have no confirmed plan for your tuition fee payments, you can still get it reactivated. You must do one of the following things.

If Student Finance have approved your tuition fee loan

Provide details of your 2023/24 tuition fee loan. Call 0115 848 8707 to check if you need to supply evidence of this.

If you're still waiting for Student Finance to approve your tuition fee loan

Set up a payment plan for your tuition fees. Call 0115 848 6500 and select option four. The Finance Income team will:

• take your payment details over the phone, and
• agree to take money from your account for fees in two instalments in January and April.

Once your payment plan is in place, you'll be fully enrolled and your student account will be reactivated overnight. On becoming fully enrolled, you'll be subject to our fee payment conditions.

Once your tuition fee loan has been approved, call Finance on 0115 848 6500. Cancel the payment plan to ensure no money is taken from your account.

If your tuition fee loan is still not be approved by the time your first fee payment is due, take the following steps.

1. Contact Finance on 0115 848 6500. Update them on your situation and discuss your payment plan.
2. Book an appointment with one of our Student Finance Advisers. They can discuss your eligibility and progress with your student finance application.