Disputing Tuition fees

[Redstar7]

Hi, i attended a Derby uni last september but i left the course in April. The reason i left was the very reason that i could not afford the tuition fees that the uni demanded i pay upfront. They are demanding over £4000, I was told i was not eligable for tuition fee support. The uni has since passed on the "debt" on to a DCA. The DCA is STA GRAYDON.

Any advice would be very appreciated, which letters should i send to the uni/DCA.

I am not in a financial position to pay and even if i was i am disputing it.

[Redstar7]

UPDATE: I sent a letter to STA GRAYDON from this website which basically told them to prove the debt or do not contact me again. This worked i have not heard from them since the end of July.

Now i get a county court claim made against me from the uni through a solicitor called "Michael T Hadfield" which i have never heard from before, they are based in Kent.

How do i deal with this? i dispute the claim entirely!

[havinastella]

How can you dispute the debt when you signed up for the course??

[Nobnob]

If you started in September and left in April then you were there for almost the entire academic year which the fees cover. I don't really know much about this area but from what I've read the rules on repaying tuition fees differs between universities - some will charge you the whole amount regardless of when you drop out, others will only charge you if you drop out after a specific point in the year. What are your grounds for disputing these fees? Because it sounds like you owe them.

[Redstar7]

My grounds will be, What "service" did i recieve that warranted the sum of almost £5000 to be claimed against me?

Since i did no recieve any qualification from this university. I was studying for a standard undergraduate degree, why was i being charged upfront anyway?

Also to whom do i owe this debt? The first DCA was sent a letter by me which said prove the contract exists or go away. They did not contact me again, so why has this matter resurfaced?

Fair enough Defence?

[Nobnob]

The service you received was the year's worth of education. Fees aren't only payable if you get a qualification. If that were the case then anyone could drop out near the end of the third year, or fail, and pay nothing, even though they used the services of the university for those three years. Every student has to pay their fees upfront.

 

There are plenty of threads on The Student Room where people have dropped out and had to pay the whole amount of their fees, the rules on this depends on the university. Perhaps you could give the student finance people a ring, apparently they are very helpful when it comes to this stuff.