If you do not pay your fees then the relevant debt procedure will be followed as detailed above, this includes a number of sanctions and it is important you understand the consequences of these.
It is important to advise students that they will receive communication from the Finance Team by different means that these sanctions are being imposed. It is important you keep checking your student and personal email and not to ignore any emails received from the University.
IT Block
This sanction is imposed 21 days following date of invoice if no payment has been made or payment plan arranged, unless the Finance Team have been informed of exceptional circumstances and a plan has been agreed.
The IT block will remove a student's access from the systems found in this document. It is important to understand that these include key course systems such blackboard and turnitin which is how as a student you access a lot of your course material or work set by your tutor, as well as submitted assessments and other work to your tutor. Failure to access this could lead you to fall behind with your course.
It is to be noted that if a student requires a re-sit of a module this may not be granted whilst an IT Block is in place.
Please be aware that the IT block does not block your access to your student email or ICON to keep contact details up to date, however these may need to be reached directly through a URL rather than being able to access through links.
De-Registration
This sanction is imposed approximately 49 days following date of invoice if no payment has been made or payment plan arranged, unless the Finance Team have been informed of exceptional circumstances and a plan has been agreed.
De-registration means the removal of your enrolment on a programme at the University of Cumbria. If this takes place you will not longer be a student and will therefore be unable to attend lectures either in person or online. You will also be removed from all University systems include student email, one drive (any work saved here may be lost) and your student card de-activated. Students living in student accommodation, either privately or within accommodation may be asked to leave, as they are no longer defined as a student and their contract may be invalid.
De-registration is a very serious sanction and it is to be noted that each student will be reviewed independently by the Finance Manager before the decision is made to action this sanction. Students will be give 3 written notices of de-registration and will have the opportunity to appeal the decision prior to the action being finalised. The final letter to students will clearly advise of the date the de-registration will be actioned and from that date the student will no longer be an active student at University of Cumbria.
Refusal to Graduation and withholding of Certificates and / or Transcripts
Students who have an outstanding tuition fee balance at the end of their programme, regardless of if they have a payment plan set up, will not be provided with their certificate or transcripts as evidence of their completion or the course or degree awarded. Student's will also be unable to attend the Graduation Ceremonies held in July and November.
All students work hard through out their programme with the same aim, to obtain a degree qualification and have those special moments at Graduation, allowing loved ones to see you collect your degree. Therefore it is a disappointment to students when they work so hard and unable to achieve this, however it is within our Student Financial Regulations that you will be unable to attend graduation or receive your certificates if there is an outstanding balance on your account relating to tuition fees, as you have not fully paid for the service you have receieved to lead to that achievment.
If you have a payment plan set up which spans the end of your programme the Finance Team will have informed you of the consequences of this at the time the payment plan was set up. The team also aim to send out commication as our graduation ceremonies approach to advise any current students with an outstanding balance will be unable to attend, including those with payment plans.
Debt Collection Agency
Once the University feels they have exhausted all options to obtain any outstanding invoice, the decision will be made to pass the account to our Debt Collection Agency. If your account is passed then this will make the outstanding balance payable to the Debt Collection Agency and they have the right to add interest and / or additional charges.
The debt collection agency may carry out credit checks and searches on your in order to trace your current contact details if you are failing to respond to communication. Failure to make a payment or clear the account could result in legal action being taken. Examples of these are below
- Judgement applied - this will have a seriously negative affect on your credit score and could prevent you from being able to apply for a mortgage, credit card or even monthly plan mobile phone in the future.
- Judgement enforced - this will mean that your account has been put to a judge a they have allowed for the debt collection agency to move forward to still collect the debt following a judgement. This could be collected through
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- Attachment of earnings if you are employed (and they will know). This means that a deemed affordable amount is taken from your wages each month in order to pay the debt
- Enforcement agents, may be advised and could cease goods to the value of the debt as way of payment
Please note all the above will incur additional charges that will be payable by the account holder. Legal proceedings, should a student decide to argue to the claims for payment, are expensive and may result in even higher costs being payable. We would hope that prior to this student's have reached out to either us, or our debt collection agency, to discuss the account more amicabaly.
