Uni cancelled courses, left with no degree and debt. Please advise!

[Honzuki]

So here's the breakdown...

 

In 2008 I started a Marine Biology degree at Kingston University in Surrey. All was going well until mid-way through the course (about February) we were informed that since there were only 6 participants that they would be cancelling the course, and the student transferred to the nearest available replacement; an Environment Management course at the same uni.

 

I was unhappy with that, so at the end of the first year I liaised with my course director and managed to transfer to a Motorcycle Engineering degree at the same university. I was/am a mature student and managed to get onto the course despite not having the required 'A levels' in maths and physics (instead having 'A levels' in biology, chemistry and computer science).

 

I managed to start the first year of Motorcycle Engineering fine, but family trouble led me to fail the first year by a couple of modules. I then needed to redo the year for 3 modules, having to take an entire year of uni just to study three modules...

 

During my resit year I (and the other 5 people who had successfully completed the 1st year) were told that they were cancelling this course due to a lack of participants, and the existing course members would be transferred to Mechanical Engineering, myself included.

 

It was at this time that I was told that I could not be funded anymore; part-way through my resit the uni informed me that they hadn't been paid by the SLC and that I owed them nearly £2,000 for the resit year, and to pay within a month or they would block my access to uni material and refuse me entry to my resit exams.

 

Sufficed to say I could not come up with the cash, and it turned out that the SLC had not paid the uni because they would only fund me for 2 of my remaining 3 years of a course, and chose THIS year to not fund me...

 

 

Anyway, move forward to now, where I am desperately seeking a way to get a university course finished, so the last 3 years of my life have not been wasted. I was unhappy with the uni cancelled BOTH of the courses I was on, and though they supplied people with a transfer to a different course I felt that in both situations I had joined a course with an outcome in mind, and each time the replacement course was not satisfactory. I have 2 years of study that have not been funded yet by the SLC, but I have applied to the LEA and my application shows that they will fund my maintenance, but say my funding for course fees is '£0'...

 

In essence, I believe that Kingston university did not provide adequate warning of the course cancellations and did not provide sufficient options for replacement, merely moved those on the cancelled courses onto courses that did not have enough in common with our original courses. The SLC did not provide me with warning that they were not paying for my 2nd year of motorcycle engineering, and were unhelpful in my dilemma.

 

Does anyone have any advice on what I can do to try and actually get a new degree funded, since both previous ones literally fell through while I was studying them, or how I should approach the situation of asking student finance to review my application under exceptional circumstances.

 

Any advice would be much appreciated!

[assisted blonde]

How many years have you been funded for in total? I was under the impression that you could only be funded for 3 and resit years were not funded.