Withdrawing means leaving your course and Queen Mary completely.
If you are thinking about withdrawing, make sure that you talk your decision through with somebody first. This might be your personal tutor, your School Student Support Officer or a member of staff at the Advice and Counselling Service. Research Students should speak with their supervisor.
Withdrawing can affect tuition fee liability and how much you are required to pay, student funding entitlements, student immigration permission (student visa) and consequently right to remain in the UK. This is explained in more detail in the Fees, Funding, and Immigration section below.
Once you withdraw, you will no longer be a Queen Mary student and access to university facilities and services will end. Our information about other practicalities has further information about this.
Most taught programmes now have two assessment periods, one in January following Semester 1 teaching and one in May following Semester 2 teaching. The deadline for submission of the withdrawal form for most programmes is the day before the start of these assessment periods. Always check the deadline for withdrawing with your Academic School.
If you miss the deadline, you will normally be entered for examinations/assessment and would need to talk to your School/Institute about submitting extenuating circumstances if you are unable to attend/submit work. If you miss these dates, you can still withdraw but your last date of attendance on the withdrawal form cannot normally be backdated to before the exam period.
The Queen Mary Academic calendar has information about assessment and exam period dates.
If you missed the withdrawal deadline but you feel that you are unfit to sit exams or to submit coursework due to medical or personal reasons, you could choose to make an extenuating circumstances claim. Have a look at the guide extenuating circumstances.
If you do not sit exams or submit coursework, and you do not submit an extenuating circumstance claim, you will normally be given a zero mark for those assessments.
The date you withdraw may affect your tuition fee liability and also your funding entitlement. This may have an impact on the funds available to you to pay any outstanding tuition fee. For information visit our Tuition Fee implications page.
If you decide that this is the best option for you, you will need to complete a withdrawal of study form, which your academic school will need to sign to say approve your withdrawal. This will be given to the Student Records Team who will update your student record. If you receive funding from a UK government, they will also be informed.
The Withdrawal of Study form and guidance notes are available online or from the Student Enquiry Centre, ground floor, iQ East Court, Mile End Road (on the opposite side to the campus), or from the Student Office at the Whitechapel campus.
If you are a Research student, you need to complete a ‘Withdrawal from University’ form available online from the Research Degrees Office. You will need to discuss the form, and your proposed withdrawal from Queen Mary, with your supervisor or director of graduate studies. Make some copies of the completed form for your own records before submitting it to the Research Degrees Office.
To find out how Tuition fees liability can be affected read our Tuition Fee information. Withdrawing does not necessarily cancel tuition fee liability and there may still be a tuition fee to pay for the year you withdraw.
If you receive Student Finance England funding, Queen Mary will inform Student Finance England (or Student Finance Wales, Scottish Awards Agency or Student Finance Northern Ireland) and future payments should stop once you withdraw. You are also required to inform Student Finance England (or Student Finance Wales, Scottish Awards Agency or Student Finance Northern Ireland) of your course withdrawal. Your entitlement to Student Finance England loans and grants for the year in which you withdraw will be recalculated using your withdrawal date as set by your School. If you do not complete the full academic year, this may mean you have been overpaid some of your loans (and grants if applicable) that SFE will ask you to repay. Different rules apply to undergraduate and postgraduate funding. Withdrawing will also affect your student funding entitlement if you start a new course in the future. For further information a visit our Student funding implications page.
If you are an international student and have a financial sponsor e.g., your government or other organisation, you will need to check with them how your funding is affected if you withdraw.
If you are a PHD student and receive a Studentship from Queen Mary, also check when this will end, contact the Research Degrees Office.
If you are in the UK with Student Immigration Permission and are no longer registered on your course, the UK visa and Immigration (UKVI) Home Office will be told of your course withdrawal. The Home Office will curtail (shorten) your immigration permission to remain in the UK as the University cannot continue to sponsor students who are no longer registered or attending their course. You can find further information about this and other Immigration factors to consider on the Visa and fee implications to changes in your programme pages.