Follow the guidance for:
- withdrawing or interrupting from your course
- withdrawing for maternity or adoption reasons
- changing courses
- resuming after a period of interruption
- deferring
Withdrawing or interrupting from your course
Your university will tell us about the change to your attendance through the university portal or set your attendance to discontinued if you withdrew before your enrolment window.
You must contact the NHS Learning Support Fund (NHS LSF) as soon as possible. This will allow us to stop further payments.
We'll work out if you're owed any payment or if an overpayment has occurred. We'll contact you by email to advise.
If you stop attending your course before your university confirm your attendance, you'll not be eligible for any payments.
Withdrawing for maternity or adoption reasons
Your university will tell us about the change to your attendance through the university portal.
While on an authorised period of parental leave, you may continue to receive the same payments you were entitled to before the leave started.
This could be for up to 52 weeks from the date you step off the course.
If your leave continues into a new academic year, you must reapply using your NHS LSF account. This allows payments to continue for the remainder of your agreed period of leave.
If you do not have a Student Finance letter when you reapply during your period of parental leave, upload a letter of explanation instead.
To continue payments once your parental leave ends, your university will tell us you've returned to study through the university portal. They can only do this on or after the date you return.
Changing courses
If you transfer to a course that is not eligible for NHS LSF, you'll no longer be entitled to any payments.
These will be stopped from the date you transfer.
If you transfer to a course which is eligible for NHS LSF, contact us to let us know about the change.
Your entitlement to NHS LSF will be reviewed and you'll be notified of any further entitlement.
If you're changing to a course at a different university, your original university will tell us of the withdrawal through the university portal. They'll provide the reason for your withdrawal and include any mitigating circumstances.
Once you show as withdrawn on your NHS LSF account, you must update the course details to the one you're transferring to. Your new university must confirm your attendance through the university portal.
If you transfer to another course within the same academic year, your university must confirm your withdrawal on the first course before you can reapply.
Once your withdrawal is complete, you can reapply for a new cohort within the same year.
Resuming after a period of interruption
If you return in a new academic year to a course which is eligible for NHS LSF, you must reapply using your NHS LSF account and upload your most recent student loan notification letter.
If you resume in the same academic year you withdrew, you do not need to reapply.
In all cases, your university must tell us you’ve returned to study on the university portal.
Deferring
If you defer your course and start later than you originally intended, you must reapply using the same NHS LSF account you registered with.
If you’ve received a revised student loan award notification as a result of the change, upload this to your account.
If you're unable to upload a revised student finance award letter, you must upload a covering letter explaining your circumstances.
If your new course starts in the same academic year as a course you previously applied for, you cannot reapply as you can only apply once per academic year.
You must update your course details on your NHS LSF account.
For more information see the NHS LSF - Financial Support for healthcare students guide.