Your rights and obligations

If you are receiving Direct Loans, Private Loans or VA Educational Benefits you must satisfy the requirements of the Policy on Satisfactory Academic Progress (SAP) for Title IV Aid Recipients.

The University will not originate Direct Loans, and/or certify Private Loans, and/or confirm enrolment for VA Educational Benefits, if you fail to meet satisfactory academic progress requirements. For further details on Satisfactory Academic Progress please see the University’s policy.

In accordance with the US legal requirements, all students who take out Direct Loans must complete entrance counselling prior to any funds being requested from the U.S. Department of Education.  If you are just taking a Direct Stafford Loan the Direct Stafford Loan entrance counselling will need to be completed. If you are also taking a PLUS Loan please complete the PLUS Loan entrance counselling.

All final-year students must complete exit counselling in their last term at Brunel University London.

If students withdraw from their programme early, they must also complete exit counselling and any unearned funding must be returned to the U.S. Department of Education. For more information see Consumer Information Tab.

Students must complete their programme within a study time frame of no longer than 150% of the length of the course. Periods of interruption of study (authorised leave of absence/abeyance) are not included.  

You are obliged to immediately inform the Funding Team if there are any changes to your enrolment status (e.g. if you withdraw, go into abeyance, or change the mode of attendance from full time to part time). This will affect your loan eligibility and we will need to re-calculate your Cost of Attendance based on your new student status.

If you withdraw early from your programme you must complete exit counselling and any unearned funds that you have received must be returned to the U.S. Department of Education according to their guidelines. The policy on returning US loan funds is available here.

If you suspend your studies for more than 180 days we must report you as being withdrawn for US Loans purposes. If you subsequently return to education, your loan can be reinstated from that point.

Before your loan money is disbursed, you may cancel all or part of your loan 14 days after receipt of a Disbursement Reminder Notification letter by emailing the Funding team

You can also increase the amount of your loan if you haven’t asked for the maximum amount available to you.

If you ask Brunel University London University to cancel all or part of your loan outside the timeframes described above, Brunel University London may process your cancellation request, but note that the University is not required to do so.

You may return all or part of your loan to the Federal Reserve, within 120 days of the disbursement date.  Contact the Direct Loan Servicing Centre for guidance on how and where to return your loan money.  You do not have to pay interest or the loan fee on the part of the loan that you returning within 120 days of the disbursement date.   If you received an up-front interest rebate on your loan, the rebate does not apply to the part of your loan that you return.  Your loan will be adjusted to eliminate any interest, loan fee, and rebate amount applicable to the amount of the loan that you return.

You are required to supply U.K. bank account details to the University in anticipation of receiving any remaining credit balance after funds are applied against eligible outstanding charges.

Please note that Brunel University London accepts no responsibility for any variation in currency exchange rates.

This applies to US Federal Direct Loans and variations between the points of a calculated Cost of Attendance, loan origination, and between the first, second, and third/final disbursements.

This also applies to US Private loans and VA Educational Benefits which may be subject to exchange rate variations between certifications and the negotiation of cheques received from lenders/sponsors for US Private Loans and VA Educational Benefits.