If you have any queries that are not answered below please email FinancialAidOffice@rvc.ac.uk.

Rights

• Have all records and data submitted with your application for financial aid treated as confidential information, as prescribed by the Family Education Rights and Privacy Act (FERPA).
• Have an explanation of the award process.
• Be notified of changes in your financial aid status and the reasons for those changes.
• Know the conditions of any loan you accept.

Responsibilities

• Complete and submit application materials to the appropriate agencies within required or recommended timeframes.
• Read all materials sent to you from the Financial Aid Office. Read, understand, and keep copies of all forms you sign.
• Know and comply with the rules governing the aid you receive. These rules include but are not limited to:

• You must not be in default on any prior educational loan.
• You must not owe a refund on a Federal Pell Grant or a Federal Supplemental Educational Opportunity Grant due to repayment.

• Provide additional documentation and any additional information if requested by the Financial Aid Office.
• Comply with the provisions of any promissory note and all other agreements you sign including repaying your student loans.
• Complete the registration process each year in order to ensure availability of all student aid funds you have been awarded.
• Use student financial aid proceeds solely for direct educational costs and related living expenses.
• Maintain satisfactory academic progress.
• Report private sources of student financial aid to the Financial Aid Office.
• Report any changes in your status: marital, academic, enrolment, residential, or name status.
• Keep your local and permanent addresses current with the Enrolments and Records Office via.

You can request additional loans at any time during the school year, as long as your borrowing does not exceed your cost of attendance. The payments can be disbursed immediately, and would normally be in your bank account within 2-3 weeks of you making your request. If you have any further scheduled disbursements, the additional amount will be split equally between an immediate disbursement and the scheduled ones.

Deadline; for all continuing students additional loans can be requested up to the 19th June 2025. For final year students it is 15th May 2025

Do not leave any requests for additional funds to the last minute, as key staff may be on holiday and the RVC does close over the Christmas and new year period.

To request additional Plus loans use the Apply for Additional Plus Loans option in Rover

Provided your new total does not exceed your cost of attendance COA you will not be required to complete a new COA Budget. The process will display your loan summary and how much you are allowed to borrow.

If you have any further scheduled disbursements, the additional amount will be split equally between an immediate disbursement and the scheduled ones.

You can cancel loans at any time prior to disbursement by notifying the Financial Aid Office by email, or by using the cancel option in the online application process.

If you cancel a loan after the money has been disbursed to the RVC, but prior to us taking the fees or processing your payment, we will return the disbursement.

If you decide to cancel after this point you will have to return the money to the Department of Education.

If you withdraw or fail to attend your course, you MUST inform the RVC, the Financial Aid Officer no later than five working days after withdrawal.

Students who withdraw from their course of study are required to inform the RVC in writing and to complete a withdrawal form. Attendance at the RVC will cease the day the Student Records Office, Academic Registry receives formal notification via the withdrawal form. If no notification is received, the date of withdrawal will be deemed to be the date the RVC became aware the student ceased attendance, or the last recorded attendance (via attendance monitoring) or academic related activity (verified by a member of staff). The latest of these dates will be used.

Failure to attend after enrolment is deemed to be a withdrawal. Any "unearned" loan funds disbursed to you directly must be returned.

If a student who receives Title IV funding (including Direct Loans) withdraws, interrupts for more than 180 days RVC will follow the requirements of returning funds laid down by the US Dept of Education and is applied alongside the RVC’s withdrawal and refund policy. The Financial Aid Officer will use the worksheets as provided by the US Department of Education to determine how much of the loan may be retained and how much must be returned.

All students who are in receipt of US Federal Loans must also email FinancialAidOffice@rvc.ac.uk to advise of their change in circumstance. Using the US Department of Education regulations, the RVC Financial Aid Office will then calculate the amount of Federal Loan funding which the student is entitled to receive up to the point of withdrawal:

• If a student has received less funding than the amount they are entitled to, the student may be able to receive the additional funds
• If the student has received more funding than the amount they are entitled to, the excess funds must be returned to the US Loans authority by the University and/or student

The RVCs Financial Aid Office will perform an R2T4 calculation within 30 days from the date of determination (of withdrawal) and will notify students of the outcome of this calculation by letter, emailed to the student’s institutional and personal email, also within 30 days. This letter will set out

• The date of withdrawal being used.
• The dates of the payment period being used for the calculation (these will be published in advance for the academic session here, but the table will be modified as per Appendix I).
• The amount of Direct Loan funds disbursed for the payment period.
• The amount of earned Direct Loan Funds.
• That for any earned Direct Loan funds that have not been disbursed, the student can choose between having the funds disbursed or to request the RVC returns these to the Department of Education to reduce your debt. Students must respond within 14 days.
• The amount of unearned funds (if any) that must be returned.
• How any unearned funds will be returned, including requirements for the student to return unearned funds.
• That If the R2T4 calculation results in a Title IV credit balance on the student’s account the credit balance will be disbursed to the student as soon as possible, but no later than 14 days after the Return calculation.

Students who reduce their load but maintain attendance on 50% or more of the scheduled programme are not deemed to have withdrawn for the purposes of Title IV.

RVC Refund Policy

The RVC’s Student Refund Policy, available on our fees and funding web pages provides the RVC’s refund process. Refunds will be calculated in accordance to RVC’s Student Fees Policy. This can be found here

Amount of Aid Earned

A student ‘earns’ aid on a daily basis and therefore if a student withdraws any ‘unearned’ aid for that payment period need to be returned to your lender. The following calculation has been provided by the US Department of Education to calculate the amount of unearned funds:

     Number of days enrolled on the program       =     % of Disbursed Funds Earned 

     Total number of days in the payment period

The percentage of disbursed funds earned is applied to the disbursed amount to determine the aid earned.

For students in receipt of U.S. Direct Loans, the period of study is calculated as the number of days completed from the first day of the payment period to the date of withdrawal. Any unscheduled leave of five days or more will be deducted from the number of days enrolled on the program.

This is expressed as a % of the total days in the payment period. The period of study calculation is used to determine whether any Direct Loan funds received need to be returned to the loan provider. It should be noted that it may be the student’s responsibility to return any over-entitlement to the loan provider. Any subsequent Direct Loans received by the RVC will be immediately returned to the loan provider.

For example, if the student completes 30% of the payment period, the student has earned 30% of the assistance they were originally scheduled to receive. Once the student has completed more than 60% of the payment period, all the assistance that the student was scheduled to receive for that period is considered to have been earned. If the student did not receive all of the funds that were earned, he or she may be due a post-withdrawal disbursement. If the post-withdrawal disbursement includes loan funds, the student may choose to decline the loan funds so that additional debt is not incurred. We will automatically use all or a portion of your post-withdrawal disbursement to settle outstanding tuition fees.

Return to Title IV calculations are carried out in accordance with US Government regulations, using the US Federal Loan Return to Title IV Worksheet.

The RVC Financial Aid Office completes a worksheet for all students in receipt of US Federal Aid who withdraw or suspend studies. The amount of funding to which a student is entitled, is determined on a pro rata basis.

Return of Funds by the School

A student ‘earns’ aid on a daily basis and therefore if a student withdraws any ‘unearned’ aid for that payment period need to be returned to your lender. Once the amount the RVC and the student needs to return has been calculated, the RVC will return unearned funds to the Department of Education by electronic transfer, and the student notified if they need to return any funds.  

Loans are returned in the following order:

• Unsubsidised Stafford
• Subsidised Stafford
• Parent/Grad PLUS

There are some Title IV funds that students were scheduled to receive that cannot be earned once a student withdraws because of other eligibility requirements. For example, in certain circumstances, if a first-time, first-year undergraduate student has not completed the first 30 days of the program before withdrawal, the student will not earn any Direct Loan funds that he or she would have received had the student remained enrolled past the 30th day.

A first year undergraduate, receiving Aid for the first time who withdraws within the first 30 days of a programme will be deemed not to have earned any aid.

As this policy uses a different calculation to the RVC's withdrawal policy it may mean that the student owes the RVC once the money has been returned to the lender. Students will be notified if this is the case.

The Finance Department is responsible for the transfer of any funds returned. They will return funds within 14 days. 

Once the RVC has determined the amounts of each type of unearned Title IV aid that it must return, any remaining unearned funds that were disbursed are the responsibility of the student. Remaining unearned funds must be returned by the student in accordance with the terms and conditions according to the promissory note.

Return of Funds by Student

If the student is notified that there are loan funds that must be returned by the student, the student should repay in accordance with the terms of the promissory note. That is, scheduled payments are made to the holder of the loan over a period of time. Students who have received a refund of their loan proceeds before withdrawing may be required to return part or all of those funds to the lender.

If you have questions about your Title IV program funds, students can call the Federal Student Aid Information Centre at 1-800-4-FEDAID (1-800-433-3243). TTY users may call 1-800-730-8913. Information is also available on Student Aid on the Web at www.studentaid.ed.gov.

Post Withdrawal Disbursement

If the student has earned aid that has not been disbursed, they will be informed of the amount in their R2T4 letter. They will be given the option to.

• Ask the RVC to return the funds on their behalf, or
• Notify the RVC of the bank account to which funds should be paid. The RVC will make payment within 10 working days of the notification from the student.

They will be asked to respond in 14 days.

If a student intends to interrupt they must contact the RVC Financial Aid Office in order for the correct loan status to be determined. The leave of absence must be approved by the Student Progress and Development Committee as per RVC regulations, and the contents of the letter issued by that committee outlining the conditions of the approved leave of absence will be used to determine whether it is regarded a leave of absence by Financial Aid regulations. An Approved Leave of Absence can last for 180 days before a student goes into repayment or has to return funds. The student must be able to resume academically at the point they left off. If the student does not return after 180 days the last date of actual attendance will be used to calculate the ‘earned’ loan amount and the date a student enters repayment.

Leave of Absences must be approved by the appropriate student progress committee, as laid down in the RVC regulations.

If the student is a Stafford Loan recipient, the school will explain to the student, prior to the approval of the LOA, the effects that the student’s failure to return from a LOA may have on the student’s loan repayment terms, including the expiration of the student’s grace period.

The federal regulations require that all Stafford Loan borrowers who graduate or withdraw from their programme of study, complete an Exit Counselling. If you do this online you can see real examples of repayment options based on the loans you have accrued.

• This can be done here select “Exit Counselling” from the “Tools and Resources” section.
• Tips on repayment.

Repayment of Federal loans is a very serious obligation. Usually, you will start repaying your Stafford loans six months from the date you graduate or leave the RVC.

There are a number of repayment options available to help borrowers to meet their obligations.

Remember, you are required to make your student loan payments even if you:

• Do not complete your education
• Are not employed upon completion of your studies
• Do not find employment in your field of study
• Feel that the education you received did not meet your expectations
• Do not receive a bill

You must make your loan repayments on time or it may have serious consequences. It may:

• Damage your credit rating, which could impact your ability to borrow
• Refer your account to a collection agency
• Incur collection costs
• Cause garnishment of your wages
• Cause withholding of your state or Federal treasury payments (including federal tax refunds, Social Security benefits, etc.)
• Cause a civil lawsuit, including court costs and legal expenses
• Cause loss of deferment and forbearance entitlements and flexible repayment options
• Cause loss of eligibility for further financial aid
• Suspend your professional license

Repayment options

There are a number of repayment options available. You should discuss them with your lender to determine which will be the best for you:

• Standard Repayment
• Graduated Repayment
• Extended Repayment
• Income-Based Repayment
• Pay As You Earn Repayment (PAYE)
• Revised Pay As You Earn Repayment (REPAYE)
• Income-Contingent Repayment
• Income-Sensitive Repayment

For full details see the Department of Education Repayment webpages. You will always pay the least amount of interest under the Standard Repayment Plan.

Third part debt relief

The RVC does not partner with any debt management company. 

Students and Alumni should be aware that some third party debt relief companies are misusing University and Department of Education logos and seals, attempting to give the impression that they are working with or on behalf of your University, and charging fees to help you manage your debt, in some cases without payments being made to reduce your balance. The Department of Education do not charge for debt relief or advice and students should contact their loan servicer for further advice regarding their repayment options, loan deferment or forbearance. You can find your servicer by logging on to the National Student Loan Database.

We are not aware of this affecting any RVC students but you should remain vigilant and wary of communications of this nature. If you have any concerns you should contact your loan servicer in the first instance.

• Tips on repayment.

If you already have FFEL Program loans and will now be receiving Direct Loans, consolidating your FFEL and Direct Loan program loans together into a Direct Consolidation loan may make loan repayment easier. If you consolidate, you will have just a single monthly payment. Consolidating your FFEL Program loans into a Direct Consolidation Loan may also allow you to take advantage of certain benefits that are offered only in the Direct Loan Program, such as Public Service Loan Forgiveness and the Income Contingent Repayment Plan.
To learn more about when you may consolidate, the pros and cons of doing so, and the application process, visit www.loanconsolidation.ed.gov or call 800/557-7392 (TDD/TTY: 800/557-7395).

The following can provide more information on Federal Loans:

• Studentloans.gov
• US Department of Education’s Student Guide to the Federal Fund Aid Programs
• Financial Aid for North America Students
• Can’t find the answer to your query on this page? Try our Frequently Asked Questions