Studying music, switching degree half way Options

[Listener]

I've said it on the forum before so I may as well let the "secret" out on this thread too that I'm at Cambridge - so perhaps not such a "proper university" after all, if a proper university is very different from Oxford!

I'd heard it was quite good (IMG:style_emoticons/default/tongue.gif)

You can get 4 years of full-time funding (8 part-time). This doesn't have to be on the same course or at the same university - if say you switch course at the end of the 1st year to a new course then you can still get 3 more years of funding. The OP would be switching after 2 years into the 2nd year of a new degree, so total 4 years and so still good.

... which would cover the suggestion in the OP which talked about degrading and 'repeating' 2nd year in a different subject. Excellent. But it would not cover dropping out after two years and starting somewhere else afresh. Someone doing that would be hit with finding final year costs including ?9k fees. The suggested plan preserves the ~?3k fees presumably and a new course, starting 2012/13 would presumably mean ?9k throughout. Maybe it should not colour decisions, but it sometimes does or even has to. Unless one is rich. (IMG:style_emoticons/default/blink.gif)

Sorry Rosie, I guess you don't need (want?!) me fighting battles on here, but you don't seem struck with desperation, more reasonable perplexity.

[Crotchetymum]

...I'm asking because I don't know. ...

You can get 4 years of full-time funding (8 part-time). This doesn't have to be on the same course or at the same university - if say you switch course at the end of the 1st year to a new course then you can still get 3 more years of funding. The OP would be switching after 2 years into the 2nd year of a new degree, so total 4 years and so still good.

I know someone who failed their 1st year twice so switched to a new 3-year degree, they would have had to self-fund their final year of the new course as that would have been year 5 (though they dropped out entirely well before that). This is why the NHS pays the tuition fees for the final year of a medical degree, because it is 5 years and you only get loans for 4.

I see, thank you (IMG:style_emoticons/default/smile.gif) That means both lads mentioned in my post will be covered (IMG:style_emoticons/default/smile.gif) It means a greater loan, of course, but at least in the case of 3-year courses, or someone in the OP's situation, it means that if you realise you have made a huge mistake, a change of direction isn't completely out of the question.

[Misti]

I'm puzzled. My degree was 5 years long, and not medicine. Although one of those years was a sandwich placement, I still was able to take out a loan during it.

I think you can get funding for as many years of the degree you applied for as its it takes a normal student to obtain it. Clearly a 5 year course, requires 5 years of funding.

(IMG:style_emoticons/default/huh.gif)

[owainsutton]

I can't say for certain, but I wonder if the NHS pay for the final year of a medical degree because after four years the equivalent of a Bachelor's degree has already been gained?

[Misti]

Nah, that doesn't work either. I was doing an undergraduate masters, as is normal for many science and engineering degrees now. You've likewise done the equivalent of a Bachelors after 3 years, and indeed, can walk away from most of the courses at that point, regardless of what you signed up for.

[Listener]

Nah, that doesn't work either. I was doing an undergraduate masters, as is normal for many science and engineering degrees now. You've likewise done the equivalent of a Bachelors after 3 years, and indeed, can walk away from most of the courses at that point, regardless of what you signed up for.

Neat - you get a loan for a master's that way

[Tixylix]

Maybe the funding rules are different if you are doing an undergraduate masters rather than just a bachelors - you often have to really root around for details and the Student Loans Company are incredibly unhelpful at best.