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Postgraduate withdrawal policy

Fees for postgraduates registered for research degrees or taught courses with a specified period of study will be calculated on the basis of the number of months of registration during an academic year.

For this purpose part of a calendar month will be counted as a full calendar month. For example, a postgraduate student withdrawing in the calendar month of registration would be charged one-twelfth of the annual fee. This means that if you attend for one day in a calendar month you will be charged for the full calendar month.

If you withdraw within the first 2 weeks of your course commencing you will not be held liable for any tuition fees for that academic year.

There are three exceptions to the above:

  1. Where fees are charged annually but a course is fully modular (e.g. PGME), fees will be charged for the number of modules a student has attended in the academic year prior to withdrawal. Students will be charged for each module they have started prior to withdrawal.
  2. Where fees are charged on a modular basis, students will be charged for the number of modules attended in the academic year prior to withdrawal. Students will be charged for a complete module for each module they have started prior to their withdrawal. N.B. Part-time MBA students at WBS will be charged using the same methodology as students on postgraduate taught courses with a specific period of study (see above).
  3. Students on the PGCE delivered in the UK* will be charged in line with the Undergraduate Withdrawal Policy.

*Please note that students on the PGCE Schools Direct (Salaried) course in the UK and the PGCE International (delivered abroad) will be charged in line with the Postgraduate Withdrawal Policy.

For further advice about the implications of withdrawing on your funding please see out advice for withdrawing students page.

Outstanding balances

Where a student has not paid the fees owing for the academic year at the point of withdrawal, they will be recorded as in debt to the University and will need to settle the balance of their fees immediately to prevent legal action being taken to recover those fees.

Where a student has paid more than the fees owing, a refund will be organised for any overpaid tuition fees and the funds will be returned to the original payer of the tuition fees using the same method of payment as for the original payment transaction.

A student who temporarily withdraws from the University will be charged fees in accordance with the above policy. The student will need to have settled all amounts owing for their tuition fees prior to returning to their studies.

Returning to study

When returning to study after a period of temporary withdrawal tuition fees due will be calculated in line with the tuition fee rate for the year of return, which may include an inflationary increase over your original fee. For information about tuition fee rates please check our Tuition Fees pages.

Repeating a year (or part year) at the University

The student will be liable for fees for the original year (or part thereof) and the repeat year (or part thereof).