Students can be de-registered for a number of reasons including missed fee payment deadlines and defaulting on an agreed fee payment plan, as explained below. However, de-registration can occur for other reasons during the academic year, for example  when exams and re-sits are not passed and no further attempts are possible or for non-attendance on a programme of study.  In this situation, de-registration would be the last resort, after an academic school had exhausted all the options to help a student re-engage with their studies.  

Once de-registered you will not be able to use any Queen Mary facilities, attend classes, sit examinations or attend graduation.  

Be aware of fraud:

• Queen Mary will never contact you to make a tuition fee payment by telephone or ask you to move funds to another bank account. 
• If you are contacted and asked to do this, please do not pay and instead contact the Fees Office for advice on how to pay your tuition fees.
• Please also read our information about Telephone Criminals targeting students for more information.

De-registration due to non payment of tuition fees

Courses that start in September:

Taught undergraduate and postgraduate students 

This is a Fee Office process.  The Advice and Counselling Service is separate to the Fees Office but we are here to support you and provide advice about your options. 

You may wish to contact a Welfare Adviser in the Advice an Counselling Service about your options. You can contact A Welfare Adviser through AskQM  The Welfare Advisers are unable to provide additional funds to help meet the cost of the unpaid tuition fees and they cannot arrange additional time to pay your tuition fees or approve extensions to any of the fee payment deadlines.  The main content of the advice will normally be to advise any difficulties with your UK Student Finance application (where applicable) and and provide explanation of the de-registration process, to help you consider whether, in your situation, de-registration or interruption would be your preferred option.

We have written the following outline to explain the de-registration process and to help you consider understand the process and consider your options. 

• To avoid being included in this de-registration process, you must be up-to-date with your fee payments by the 31 January 2026.  

• If you are an undergraduate student and intend to pay your tuition fee using UK government student funding e.g. a Student Finance England Tuition Fee Loan, to avoid being included in this process you must have received official confirmation by 31 January confirming that the tuition fee loan has been awarded to you for the current academic year. This must be from your funding body and you should provide this confirmation to the Queen Mary Fees Office by 31 January.  

• If you are paying your own tuition fee, you must be up-to-date with your tuition fee instalment payments by 31 January , in accordance with your payment plan. You may have further instalments to pay after that date, but you must have paid the agreed amount and this must have been received by the Fees Office by 31 January.

• You can raise an enquiry via AskQM to inform the Fees Office to discuss your fee payment options and the amount you are required to pay or to explain the reason for the delay although this is unlikely to result in additional time to pay.  

• Do not wait and explore your options as early as possible. If you have questions you can confidentially contact a Welfare Adviser at the Advice and Counselling Service. However, a Welfare Adviser cannot grant or arrange extensions to the fee payment deadlines or negotiate alternative payment plans.   If you are experiencing difficulties resolving your student funding entitlement, for example your Student Finance England funding has not been awarded, or you know that your cannot pay your tuition fee in time to avoid being de-registered, they can talk through any options with you.  Other options will include explaining the differences between interrupting study or being de-registered. However it is very unlikely that a Welfare Adviser will be able to suggest alternative funding to help you meet the cost of your unpaid tuition fee.

Otherwise, expect to be included in the Queen Mary de-registration process if you have any outstanding tuition fees to pay by 31 January, you have defaulted on your fee payment plan or you are a home undergraduate student and have not been awarded a tuition fee loan.  These are the next steps in the process:

• If you are not up to date with your tuition fee payments on 31 January 2026, a late penalty charge of £150 will be added to your tuition fee account. 

• The Fees Office will provide Registry with a list of students who are not up to date with their fee payments by 31 January 2026. Registry will email those students shortly after, during early February.  Normally a further 10 working days is given to settle and clear the payment and this allows students another chance to make the payment and avoid being deregistered. However, if you are paying via a BACS transfer payment it can take 5-7 working days to clear and payment must have reached the Queen Mary bank account by the deadline.

• Unless you can pay (and clear) the amount required by this later date, or your undergraduate Student Finance Tuition Fee Loan has been approved and is now in place, you are risk of being deregistered from your programme during the same week. Payments received after this will still be accepted by the Fees Office, but this will not stop the de-registration process. If you are de-registered, an email will be sent to you to explain the next steps.  

• The final date to pay any outstanding tuition fees and the late payment charge is 5pm, 23 february 2026.  Payment must show in the University bank account by the date.

• If you are deregistered, you would not be permitted to attend classes, examinations or make use of Queen Mary resources.

• You remain liable to pay the outstanding tuition fee even if you are de-registered and do not intend to return to your course.

• If you are deregistered you should be given the option to appeal.

Postgraduate students on courses that start in January:

• You can raise an enquiry via AskQM with the Fees Office to discuss your fee payment options and the amount you are required to pay or to explain the reason for the delay although this is unlikely to result in additional time to pay.  

• Do not wait and explore your options as early as possible. If you have questions you can confidentially contact a Welfare Adviser at the Advice and Counselling Service. However, a Welfare Adviser cannot grant or arrange extensions to the fee payment deadlines or negotiate alternative payment plans.   If you are experiencing difficulties resolving your student funding entitlement, for example your Student Finance England funding has not been awarded, or you know that your cannot pay your tuition fee in time to avoid being de-registered, they can talk through any options with you.  Other options will include explaining the differences between interrupting study or being de-registered. However it is very unlikely that a Welfare Adviser will be able to suggest alternative funding to help you meet the cost of your unpaid tuition fee.

• To avoid being included in the de-registration process you must be up-to-date with your fee payments by the 30 April 2026.  To avoid being included in the de-registration process, outstanding tuition fees need to be paid and cleared by this date.  You can raise an enquiry via AskQM to inform the Fees Office of the reason for the delay although this is unlikely to result in additional time to pay.  

• If you are not up to date with your fee payments, a late penalty charge of £150 will be added to your tuition fee account. 

• Early in June each year, a list of student debtors will be compiled and will be included in the de-registration process.  These students will be informed that their course registration will end if outstanding tuition fee payment arrangements are not made and cleared within 10 working days.  This means that students have another chance to make the payment and for it to have cleared. However if you are paying via a BACS transfer payment it can take 5-7 working days to clear and payment must have reached the Queen Mary bank account by the deadline.

• Unless you can pay (and clear) the amount required by this later date, expect to be de-registered from your programme during the same week. Payments received after this will still be accepted by the Fees Office, but this will not stop the de-registration process. If you are de-registered, an email will be sent to you to explain the next steps. 

• If you are de-registered, you would not be permitted to attend classes, examinations or make use of Queen Mary resources.

• You remain liable to pay the outstanding tuition fee even if you are de-registered and do not intend to return to your course.

• Further information and specific dates will become available in June and July 2026.

Research students 

The de-registration process operates differently. You should still be contacted and asked to pay your tuition fees and informed of any de-registration date, but the dates are different according to when you started your programme.  Contact the Research Degrees Office for options regarding unpaid fees and de-registration. 

I have been de-registered. How can I get reinstated on to my programme of study?  

All students 

If you have been de-registered for non-payment of tuition fees:

• You may be given the right to appeal the decision to de-register you but there are strict deadlines.  The correspondence you receive informing you that you have been de-registered for unpaid fees will explain provide information about making an appeal against your de-registration, provide the deadline to submit the appeal and the evidence you need to provide such proof of the outstanding payment. However there is no guarantee that an appeal will be successfully resolved and that you will be allowed to return to your course.

  For an appeal to normally succeed the outstanding tuition fee should be paid before any appeal is made or very soon afterwards. You will need to both complete the relevant appeals form and submit proof of payment for your appeal to be considered. No other evidence is normally required. The appeal must be submitted before the appeal deadline ends.  If the appeal is resolved, you may be reinstated on your course in the current academic year.

• If you cannot pay your fee in time to appeal or your appeal is unsuccessful, you will remain de-registered and unable to attend your course. However you still have another opportunity to retain your place on your course providing you can pay all of your outstanding tuition fees plus the £150 late payment fee and a £250 reinstatement fee by the relevant dates.

• The relevant date* for September starters, is 31 July in the same year in which you have been de-registered and for January starters it's 31st October of the same year.

• For most students, paying by these dates will preserve your right to re-join your course and resume your studies at a later date, 12 months following your date of de-registration. 

• Postgraduate Students: As you will have paid your tuition fee in full by the relevant date*, you will usually have only have to pay the annual uplift in the tuition fee charged for 2026/27.

• Undergraduate self paying students: who are deregistered but able to clear their fees and charges by 31 July 2026 will be required to pay the annual uplift in the tuition fee charged for 2026/27 when they resume study in the following academic year (12 months on from when they were de-registered).

• Undergraduate students who are deregistered but who are later awarded a tuition fee loan and able to clear their tuition fee balance by 31 July 2026 may be required to pay 75% of the tuition fee charged for 2026/27 when they resume study in the following academic year (12 months on from when they were de-registered). 

• Undergraduate Medical And Dental students who are deregistered are normally required to start the year from the beginning and this will normally mean a full additional year of tuition fees are charged. The fee charged will be the one charged for the 2026/27 academic year.

• If you cannot pay your outstanding fee by by the relevant date*, you will not be able to resume your studies and your withdrawal from the course will be permanent.

Students in the UK on a student visa should read the later section that explains the impact on your student visa.  If you intend to appeal and pay your tuition fees this also explains why it is important to pay your tuition fees and appeal as early as possible.

Contact your School for academic advice if you have been de-registered and are unable to attend your course.

Research students with unpaid fees - exception

Once research students pay the outstanding tuition fee + the £250 reinstatement fee, they can be reinstated back onto their course and, unlike taught students, do not have to wait for 12 months to re-join.  

Can I  make a complaint about being de-registered for unpaid fees?  

All students have the option to make a complaint about the way that their de-registration has been processed, although a complaint will not normally alter your de-registration or provide any alternative fee payment options.

Complaints can be made to Student Appeals, Complaints and Conduct Office .

The Student Union also provides independent advice about making an appeal or complaint.  Contact  the Academic Advice manager Annie Mitchell in the Students Union.

 

Additional important information

students with a student visa 

• Queen Mary will normally withdraw sponsorship of your studies and tell the Home Office that you are no longer attending your course.  This should only happen after the appeal deadline and only if you have not made a successful appeal and are unable to rejoin your course.  Based on this information the Home Office will look to cancel your visa sometime shortly after.  If you make a successful appeal and are are reinstated onto your course it is important to immediately contact the Queen Mary Immigration Compliance Team through AskQM to let them know.   You can also find further information about how your student visa may be affected on the Visa implications to a change in your programme.  

Students receiving Student Finance

• If you have an outstanding Student Finance application, consider resolving this as a fee loan may be still be awarded and help you meet the cost of your outstanding tuition fee.

• If you receive Student Finance England funding or funding from one of the other UK governments, they will be informed of your de-registration and should stop further payments of your funding.

• If you are de-registered and remain so, Student Finance England (or other UK funding providers) would also normally re-assess your funding entitlement for the current academic year.  This may result in an overpayment of maintenance loans or other loans or grants you may receive as you have not completed the year.  Student Finance England normally ask for overpayments to be repaid in full straight away or repaid by arranging a monthly repayment plan with them.  If you are able to rejoin your course in the next academic year, any overpayment may be deducted from your future entitlement.  You also need to check if you are eligible for a Tuition Fee loan to pay your tuition fees for the year you rejoin as SFE limit the number of years this is available.

• If you are an Undergraduate student and receive NHS funding this will also be affected in a similar way.  However, the NHS only provide a maximum of 12 months of funding for repeat periods.  If you have already used this for a previous repeat period, you will not be entitled to receive NHS funding for a further repeat period in the year you rejoin you course following your de-registration. 

• If you are a Postgraduate student you may be relying on the final instalment of your postgraduate loan to help meet the cost of your outstanding tuition fee however this may no longer be available to you as Student Finance England should stop this payment once they are notified that you are no longer in attendance. If you can clear your fees and are allowed to rejoin your course 12 months after your de-registration, the final installment should become available.

• We have information on our Funding implications pages

Other practicalities

Read our information about practical implications and access to Queen Mary Services if you are no longer attending a course at Queen Mary.