Further to our email communication on 26.03.26, we are developing this FAQ page. We will update these as necessary, so encourage you to check this page regularly for updates.
You can submit additional questions via qahe.enquiries@solent.ac.uk
FAQs are correct at the time of writing based on the information the University has received from DfE and SLC to date.
Update - 31 March 2026
Slides and information from a student Q&A hosted on Monday 30 March are available here.
Last updated 14.04.26 11:00
On 23 March 2026, the Department for Education (DfE) wrote to the University and explained that for the purposes of the Student Support Regulations, a course is considered “in-attendance” only where students are required to attend on a regular, timetabled, in-person basis during weekdays. The DfE normally considers regular weekday attendance to mean at least once per week of required, scheduled attendance for learning or professional practice during Monday-Friday.
A requirement to attend solely at weekends, during vacation periods, solely online, or on an occasional basis (including once-termly or fortnightly attendance) does not normally meet the regulatory threshold for in-attendance study.
Under the Education (Student Support) Regulations 2011, attendance on weekends only is classified as distance learning, and students on such courses do not qualify for maintenance support or targeted grants (with the exception of Disabled Students’ Allowances).
Therefore, your course cannot be classified as “in-attendance” and under the Regulations you were not and are not eligible for maintenance support or targeted grants.
The University is currently seeking legal advice on the decision by the DfE to require the reclassification of courses as distance learning.
The University was not aware of this issue for current and past students prior to the communication from the DfE on 23 March 2026 and we are investigating the position as a matter of urgency.
Since being informed by the Department for Education last Monday, 23 March, we have written to all students to make them aware of the situation, and further communications will be shared on a regular basis. It is our intention to continue to keep you informed as regularly as we can in the circumstances.
Yes. If you are studying on a course which is delivered in person on the weekend and online in the evenings on weekdays, you are still affected by this change. For the purposes of the Student Support Regulations, a course is considered “in-attendance” only where students are required to attend on a regular, timetabled, in-person basis during weekdays. The DfE normally considers regular weekday attendance to mean at least once per week of required, scheduled attendance for learning or professional practice during Monday-Friday.
If you are a current student on an impacted course, your maintenance loan and targeted grant payments will have been blocked by the SLC with immediate effect. The SLC will contact you to discuss recovery of any previous payments via a repayment plan.
The SLC will contact you to set up your repayment plan. Repayment plans are based on a student’s individual circumstances. An affordability exercise is undertaken with you when you contact the SLC and a repayment plan is developed as a result of that discussion. The following link provides more information: https://www.gov.uk/repay-student-loan-overpayment
Please note that the University does not have access to your maintenance loan or targeted grant information.
Option 1: Stay on your current course which is not eligible for maintenance support or targeted grants.
Option 2: Transfer to a course by 17th April that has the same content but is classified as in-attendance because it requires regular, timetabled, in person attendance during weekdays. Please note that the University has to evidence regular weekday in-person attendance and so will be required to monitor this carefully.
Option 3: Suspend your studies. This will enable you to take a break from your studies and then, depending on the circumstances when you wish to return, you could have the opportunity to rejoin your current course (option 1) or transfer to another course (option 2).
Option 4: Withdraw from your studies. This means that you have decided not to continue with your studies and wish to withdraw from your current course and not transfer to another course.
Please note that none of the above options negate the requirement to pay back any maintenance support or targeted grants to the SLC that have been paid to you to date. Option 2 would give you the option to claim maintenance support and/or targeted grants in the future. However, SLC have indicated that past maintenance support/targeted grants may be deducted from those future payments. Again, this will be based on your individual circumstances and will take into account affordability considerations.
We are working at pace with our delivery partner to provide you with draft timetables as soon as possible so you can understand what a changed delivery mode would look like.
If you have selected Option 2 on the form, we will be in contact with you in due course to process your transfer.
Universities are required by the DfE to submit the Change of Circumstances notification to the SLC between 6th and 17th April to move you from your current in-attendance mode to distance learning.
Should you choose to progress with Option 2 (course transfer), we want to ensure that we can submit the second Change of Circumstances notification to transfer you to an in-attendance course to the SLC before the cut-off date on 20th April so you become eligible for maintenance loan payments again. You will not need to submit a new application to SFE.
We also recognise that teaching commences again on 20th April and we want to ensure that you have the correct timetable before starting.
You can choose to transfer to the new mode of delivery from 15th June. However, please note that you will remain ineligible for maintenance loan and targeted grant payments until you have transferred to a course that is classified as in-attendance.
No, tuition fee loans are not impacted by this.
No. Both distance learning and in-attendance courses attract Disabled Students’ Allowance (DSA). Therefore, eligible students on distance learning courses will continue to receive DSA.
Yes. The SLC considers these to be an overpayment too and will seek to recover these through a repayment plan.
If you were actively studying this academic year and then withdrew from or completed the course, you are also affected by these changes.
The DfE and SLC will jointly review historic irregular payments linked to affected courses and will seek direction from Ministers on appropriate recovery action. Further guidance on this will follow.
We are working with our delivery partner to review options for emergency hardship support and will provide further information as soon as possible.
You can access support here:
On campus wellbeing support available via the QAHE Student Welfare team.
Wellbeing support also available through the Student Assistance Programme
Student access details:
Link to app: Wisdom
Code to use to register: MHA339939
You do not need to submit an Extenuating Circumstances claim as we have agreed an automatic 7-day extension to all assessments.
Your deadline date will not change on SOL, but all students on all assessments up to 31 July will have an additional 7 days without a cap being applied.
Please use your normal submission link to submit your assessments.
You can email your complaint to qahe.complaints@solent.ac.uk.
The Students’ Union can provide impartial, confidential and free advice and can be contacted at suadvice@solent.ac.uk
The Student Protection Plan is available here: https://www.solent.ac.uk/studying-at-solent/documents/student-protection-plan.pdf
We are currently awaiting approval from the Office for Students for the updated version of this plan which was submitted earlier this academic year.
You can contact us on qahe.enquiries@solent.ac.uk.
We will also be holding online information sessions during this period to answer your questions.
Our primary method of communication to you will be to your personal and student email address so we advise checking your inbox regularly.
You have the right under data protection legislation to request access to your personal data processed by the University. This is known as a data subject access request or a DSAR. If you submit a DSAR, the University will provide copies of your personal data that is held within our own systems and records in accordance with the data protection legislation.
Please note that the right of access is limited to your personal data contained within the University’s records. Your right to access does not extend to the totality of the documents containing your personal data or to the original documents themselves. This might mean you get new documents that only contain your information, or original documents with certain information removed or edited out (i.e. redacted). Personal data in some circumstances may also be withheld subject to certain exemptions set out in data protection legislation, where applicable.
DSARs only cover information processed by the University. This means:
The University aims to respond to DSARs within one month in line with data protection legislation. In some cases—such as complex requests or where multiple requests are made—the statutory timescale may be extended to up to three months. If an extension is needed, we will let you know within the first month.
Further information about how to make a DSAR is available here:
https://www.solent.ac.uk/about/our-policies-and-legal-information/our-policies/data-protection-freedom-of-information
Under the Freedom of Information Act 2000 (FOIA), you can request general (non‑personal) information held by the University. We aim to provide as much information as possible, but some information may be withheld where the exemptions set out in the FOIA apply.
For example, your request may be partially or fully refused in situations such as:
If an exemption or limitation is applied, the University will issue a refusal notice in line with the FOIA, explaining why the information has been withheld with reference to the appropriate section of the FOIA.
FOI requests are normally responded to within 20 working days, unless an extension under FOIA applies. You will be notified in the event an extension applies.
Further information about how to make a request is available here:
https://www.solent.ac.uk/about/our-policies-and-legal-information/our-policies/data-protection-freedom-of-information
Please complete this form to let us know that your account is not currently blocked and we will liaise with the SLC.
Please note that the SLC has confirmed with us that all accounts of impacted students will be blocked.
This is something that the SLC controls and is responsible for and is not something that we can implement or direct. We will however continue to seek clarity on behalf of our students.
No, you will not need to submit a new application. The University will submit a Change of Circumstance notification to the SLC which will trigger a new entitlement letter for you from the SLC.
As set out in the DfE letter from 26.03.26, we are required to submit a first Change of Circumstance (CoC) notification to the SLC w/c 13th April to transfer all impacted students from in-attendance to distance learning. This is an instruction by the DfE and relates to the classification of the course for funding purposes and does not therefore require your consent.
The University then needs to wait for the SLC to confirm that this change has been processed and that we can submit a second CoC for those students who have chosen to transfer to an in-attendance delivery mode with in-person weekday evening sessions. This CoC requires your consent which you have provided by completing the timetabling form.
This CoC will reflect the effective date on which you moved from a weekend‑only course to one that includes both weekend and in-person weekday attendance.
The SLC have advised that they are hoping to process the second CoC notifications w/c 20th April which would then trigger your new entitlement letter and confirm future payment dates.
However, the University notes that the SLC are currently already behind the original schedule set out by the DfE to process the first CoC, so these dates are subject to change. Again, this is a matter entirely within the control of the SLC, but we will continue to ask them to deal with it promptly to minimise the uncertainty for our students.
Students who do not choose to transfer to the in-attendance delivery mode will remain on the weekend-only course which will continue to be delivered as previously advertised.
The SLC have advised that they will seek to recover all previous maintenance payments for the duration of your studies and will attempt to recover these overpayments from future payments. The exact payment plan will be sent to you by the SLC, and you have the option to go through their hardship assessment.
Any overpayment will be treated separately from the normal student loan repayment process. An overpayment of a loan or grant does not affect an individual’s credit score.
You can submit your complaint via the SLC Complaints Procedure: https://www.gov.uk/government/organisations/student-loans-company/about/complaints-procedure
You can apply for Financial Hardship Overpayment Deferral. Once you receive your entitlement letter you can complete the form above and upload it to your online account.
The SLC have advised that they have blocked the next payment for impacted students. If you have chosen to transfer to a course that is classified as in-attendance, you will receive a new entitlement letter after the second Change of Circumstance from the SLC which will set out your next payment date.
The rates for cancellation and withdrawal are set out in your Terms and Conditions under the respective section: https://www.solent.ac.uk/about/our-policies-and-legal-information/terms-conditions-undergraduate-and-postgraduate-courses
Withdrawal is a significant step from an academic perspective and could affect the amount of tuition fees that you are required to repay. If you require any advice and guidance about this, please contact QAHE.SASC@qa.com.
Below are the exact answers from the SLC on 10.04.26 (Our questions followed by SLC answers in bold):
Does regular (weekly), structured, mandatory online evening attendance on a weekday satisfies the requirement for the course to be classified as in-attendance?
No — this does not satisfy the “in‑attendance” requirement.
For the purposes of the Student Support Regulations, a course is considered in‑attendance only where students are required to attend regular, timetabled, in‑person sessions on weekdays. For clarity, the Department normally defines regular weekday attendance as at least one instance per week of required, scheduled, in‑person attendance for learning or professional practice, taking place Monday to Friday.
Is there a requirement for min. hours of face to face in person attendance on a weekday incl. evening to classify as “in-attendance”?
Currently, no — there is no explicit minimum requirement; however, there is an expectation that weekday attendance is regular.
Requirements to attend solely at weekends, during vacation periods, entirely online, or on an occasional basis (including once‑termly or fortnightly attendance) do not normally meet the regulatory threshold for in‑attendance study.
We typically consider a course to be full‑time where students are engaged in study on most days and for the majority of weeks in the academic year. This will normally involve at least 24 weeks of structured activity and an average workload of around 21 hours per week during term time, inclusive of taught sessions, independent study, and other learning activities.
Further to this, is there a min. % threshold of face to face in person attendance required for a course to be classified as in-person either on a weekly basis or across an academic year?
There is no defined minimum attendance expressed as a percentage for in‑attendance study. Instead, there is an expectation of regular weekday attendance.
Delivery models based on weekend‑only study, attendance during vacation periods, fully online provision, or intermittent attendance (for example, once‑termly or fortnightly) will not normally meet the in‑attendance threshold.
The standard QAHE attendance policy applies; there will be no flexible arrangements.
The SLC has advised that they will audit these attendance records in future, and therefore the University will be monitoring this carefully to evidence regular weekday in-person attendance. It is important therefore that student attendance is maintained in accordance with the QAHE attendance policy.
We confirm registration at the beginning of the year which confirms the maintenance loan. We also confirm attendance termly; this releases the tuition fee payment and the maintenance loan instalments.
QAHE are working with academic colleagues to explore the best possible solutions. We will share more information when available.
Please direct any queries about timetables including requests for changes/alternatives to: fundingqueries@qahighereducation.com.
No, your degree classification and award are not impacted by this situation.
We would provide transcripts of completed credit and, where applicable, in line with the Academic Regulations award an exit award.
The University objects to the view of the DfE that courses with in-person attendance on weekends cannot be classified as in-attendance courses.
We are extremely concerned that maintenance loan payments to a number of our students have been abruptly blocked, putting them at risk of financial hardship, and that the position regarding repayments and future maintenance entitlements remain unclear.
We are currently taking legal action on this matter to challenge the decision by the DfE and SLC. We are also engaging with the SLC on a regular basis (at least weekly) to press them to provide clarity and a fair and reasonable process to resolve the position for each affected student as quickly as possible so that the outcome is affordable and enables each student to complete their studies. It is important that you engage with the SLC to secure the best possible repayment arrangements you can.
Once you and the SLC agree what should happen to your maintenance funding payments and how you should make repayments, we will consider any complaint you wish to make to us through a specially designed and streamlined complaint process.
We continue to work closely with our delivery partner and Students’ Union to provide appropriate support and advice to impacted students.
Your wellbeing, and clear and open communication with you remain our priority.
You can contact your Students’ Union for support on suadvice@solent.ac.uk.
You can also support the national campaign led by the National Union of Students (NUS).
Email sign-up: https://www.nus.org.uk/weekend-students-sign-up
Event 16th April: https://www.nus.org.uk/weekend-student-loans-petition-hand-in
Petition: https://www.nus.org.uk/dont-take-weekend-students-maintenance-loans
Template letter to MP: https://www.nus.org.uk/dont-freeze-our-futures-write-to-mp