De-registration

Students can be de-registered if they have missed fee payment deadlines or defaulted on fee payment plans, 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 final option, 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.

I cannot pay my tuition fees, when does de-registration happen? 

Taught undergraduate and postgraduate students and C3 de-registration

All taught courses that start in September:

To avoid being included in the C3 de-registration process, you must be up-to-date with your fee payments by the following 31 January.  

If you intend to pay your tuition fee using UK government student funding e.g. a Student Finance England Tuition Fee Loan, you must have received official confirmation by 31 January that confirms 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, by 31 January you must be up-to-date with payments of your tuition fee instalments, in accordance with your payment plan. You may have further instalments to pay after that date, but you must have paid the agreed amount by 31 January and this must have been received by the Fees Office.  

Expect to be included in the Queen Mary C3 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. 

De-registration process:

The following is an outline of the de-registration process. The dates are approximate and yet to be confirmed:

• If you are not up to date with your tuition fee payments on 31 January 2026, a late penalty charge of £150 may be added to your tuition fee account. To avoid being included in the de-registration process, outstanding tuition fees need to be paid and cleared by 31 January.  You can raise an enquiry via AskQM to inform the Fees Office of the reason for the delay.  
• The Fees Office will provide a list of students who are not up to date with their fee payments by 31 January 2026 to Registry who will email those students during February.  Normally this allows a further 10 working days in which to settle the payment although the specific date is yet to be confirmed. This means that students have another chance to make the payment and for it to have cleared. Please note if you are paying via a BACS transfer it can take 3-4 working days to clear.
• Unless you can pay (and clear) the amount required (or your undergraduate Student Finance Tuition Fee Loan is in place) 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, you would not be permitted to attend classes, examinations or make use of Queen Mary resources.
• Further information and specific dates will be available in February 2026.

2025/26 De-registration process for postgraduate courses that start in January:

• To avoid being included in the C3 de-registration process you must be up-to-date with your fee payments by the following 30 April.  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.  
• If you are not up to date with your fee payments, a late penalty charge of £150 may also be added to your tuition fee account. 
• Early in June each year, a list of student debtors will be compiled and students on this list will be included in the C3 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. Please note if you are paying via a BACS transfer it can take 3-4 working days to clear.
• 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.
• Further information and specific dates will become available in June and July 2026.

Options for all students

Contact the Fees Office to discuss your fee payment options and the amount you are required to pay. You can raise an enquiry via Ask QM.

Do not wait and explore your options as soon as possible. If you have questions you can confidentially contact a Welfare Adviser at the Advice and Counselling Service. A Welfare Adviser can discuss your options and circumstances with you although they cannot grant or arrange extensions to the 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 though options with you.

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. 

Additional information for all students:

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

If you have an outstanding Student Finance application, consider resolving this as a fee loan may 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 and re-assess your funding entitlement for the academic year.  This may result in an overpayment of maintenance loan if you receive this.  SFE normally ask for overpayments to be repaid in full or by setting up a repayment plan. 

If you are in the UK on a student visa, this will be affected as the University is required to notify the Home Office of your change in study and your visa may be cancelled. See the section at the end of this page for more information about the impact on your student visa.

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

All taught students 

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

• You may 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 should explain if you have a right of appeal against your de-registration, provide the deadline to submit and the evidence you need to provide. 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.

• Otherwise, if your course started in September, you must pay all of your outstanding tuition fees plus any administrative charges by 31st July in the same year in which you have been de-registered.

• For January starters this date is 31st October.

• This will preserve your right to re-join your course and resume your studies at a later date, but no earlier than 12 months following your date of de-registration.  This means the earliest date to re-join will normally be the following February, one year on from the date of your de-registration.  As as you will have paid your tuition fee, you will usually have no further tuition fee to pay when you return to study.

If you cannot pay your outstanding fee by 31st July (September starters)  or  31st October (January starters) in the same year of your de-registration, 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 section at the end of this page 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

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.

The effect on Fees, funding, immigration, and other practical matters 

Check the amount of tuition fee you owe 

You will still be liable to pay tuition fees even if you are de-registered.  Raise an enquiry with the Fees Office via AskQM if you are unsure of the amount you are required to pay and take a look at our Tuition Fee Implications guidance.

Consider the impact on your funding 

If you receive UK Government student funding, check how this will be affected if you are no longer enrolled on your course. Your funding will be affected in the current academic year and also affected next year if you return to study your current course or if you start a new course in the future. We have information on our Financial Support pages.  Student funding payments normally stop if you are de-registered, and you may be asked to repay some of your loan if you have been paid too much.  Therefore you cannot rely on this funding to support your personal maintenance or pay any remaining tuition fee due. 

If you receive funding from anywhere else, e.g. your government or other organisation, check with them how your funding will be affected if you are de-registered. 

Consider the impact on your student visa 

You can find information about how your student visa may be affected on the Visa implications to a change in your programme. 

However if you hold a student visa and are de-registered:  If you are de-registered, Queen Mary will normally withdraw sponsorship of your studies and tell the Home Office that you are no longer attending your course.  This should happen with 10 days of your de-registration. Based on this information the Home Office should cancel your visa sometime shortly after.  Therefore, if you intend to pay your tuition fees and appeal, you should do this as early as possible.  If your appeal is allowed and you are reinstated onto your course, it may be possible to update the Home Office and ask for your student visa to remain in place. However, this is not possible if your student visa has already been cancelled.  If you are re-instated onto your course it is therefore important to immediately contact the Queen Mary Immigration Compliance Team at immigrationcompliance@qmul.ac.uk and inform them that you have been re-instated onto your course.   

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.