Will I get a refund if I cannot come to the University?

Status of Your Payment

• Tuition fee deposits are advance payments toward services provided by the University of Hull.
• The deposit amount is charged at a rate advertised on our webpages and is reviewed after each intake.
• Payment of a deposit forms part of your acceptance of an offer and creates a binding contract between you and the University of Hull

Provision of Services

• Services are considered to begin from the point of offer acceptance and/or payment, including:
  • application processing and compliance checks
  • allocation of a course place
  • preparation of enrolment documentation (e.g., CAS issuance where applicable)
• You agree that these are chargeable services, even if you later decide not to enrol.
• Refunds will be processed if the University cancels your programme before it starts or cannot run it as planned due to circumstances beyond its control.

Your Responsibilities

By making payment, you confirm that:

• You have reviewed all pre‑contract information, including fees, course details, and refund terms
• You understand that this information forms part of the contract between you and the University of Hull

Circumstances under which a refund will be given

The tuition fee deposit is non-transferable and non-refundable, except in specific circumstances:

Full refunds

• Within the ‘cancellation rights’ period, [14 days from [receipt of the deposit] as referenced within the Student Contract Terms and Conditions, presented on the University’s website Student Contract Terms and Conditions and noted in section 12 - Termination of Your Contract:

1. How We May End Your Contract
2. How You May End Your Contract (Your Cancellation Rights)

• A refund (less an administration fee as detailed on our website) will be given:
  • if an individual fails to meet the conditions of their offer to study, including:
    • academic and/or English language requirements,
    • the Academic Technology Approval Scheme (ATAS) requirement if applicable,
    • or other entry requirements.
  • This includes failure to meet any pre-CAS requirements included after the initial offer to study (e.g. failed credibility interview or failure to provide mandatory information).
• Request for refunds (less an administration fee) will be considered where there are exceptional circumstances beyond an individual’s control, such as:
  • Serious illness or bereavement of an immediate family member.
    • An application for this type of refund must be supported by satisfactory certified documents such as a doctor's certificate, evidence of relationship for bereavement, and/or other relevant documents verifying the situation.
    • Documents must be on an official letterhead, be legible, signed and stamped, dated, and accompanied by a certified translation if they are not written in English.

Partial refunds

A partial refund will be given in the following circumstances:

• An individual has used their University of Hull CAS to submit their student visa application to the UKVI, and the UKVI have refused the application on the grounds of credibility.
• Individuals who receive a UKVI visa refusal on the grounds of credibility will be entitled to a partial refund, which is 50% of the standard £4,000 tuition fee deposit. Therefore, they would be eligible for a refund of £2,000.
• The University deems £2,000 to be a reasonable amount to retain, based on the following reasons:
  • administrative processing costs incurred;
  • significant time invested in the recruitment process;
  • loss of tuition fee income because of the visa refusal;
  • used CAS (which cannot be re-used or assigned to another individual); and
  • the inability, due to time constraints, for the individual to re-apply, or for the University to recruit an alternative prospective student
• If an individual receives a UKVI Credibility refusal, the University strongly recommends they submit an Administrative Review (AR) to UKVI, within the required timeframe. If an Administrative Review successfully reverses the UKVI decision, the individual would be entitled to a full refund by the University of the standard £4,000 deposit, less administration fee.
• If the individual fails to submit an Administrative Review within the required timeframe, or the review is submitted but is unsuccessful, the University reserves the right to retain £2,000 of the standard £4,000 tuition fee deposit. As noted above, this is based on the significant amount of time invested throughout the application/admissions process, and the University’s CAS issuance and immigration compliance processes (including the cost of the CAS).
• Upon issuing the CAS there is a genuine expectation the individual will enrol on their chosen course, so there is also a significant amount of lost tuition fee income when a visa refusal occurs. Given the timing of the refusal, and in the case of certain courses with recruitment caps, there is often no time within the current cycle to recruit an alternative prospective student, and therefore the University is unable to retrieve the lost income with additional recruitment.
• Individuals required to pay an enhanced deposit (as detailed on the University’s website) would receive a refund of any deposit paid above £4,000. For example, an individual paying a £10,000 tuition fee deposit, who receives a visa refusal after a UKVI credibility interview, would be entitled to a refund of £8,000.
• Individuals who provide appropriate evidence to the University of a successful outcome of their Administrative Review application, following which the refusal decision is overturned by UKVI, would be entitled to a full refund of the standard £4,000 deposit, less administration fee.
• If an individual has had their visa application refused on grounds of credibility, following a UKVI interview, they may be able to study the University’s online version of the course. This would mean they would not require a student visa, as they would not be travelling to the UK to study. In such circumstances they are still encouraged to submit an Administrative Review of the decision to the UKVI.
• Those choosing this option will need to pay the relevant tuition fees for their online course, whilst their original deposit will be held temporarily. Any deposit paid to the University for the original course will be refunded to the individual when they have enrolled on and completed the first trimester of the online course.

A refund will not be given where an applicant uses deception or misrepresentation, including submission of falsified or fraudulent documents, as part of their application to study at the University.

Exceptional circumstances and appeals

• No refunds, other than for exceptional circumstances will be made once an individual has arrived in the UK, including where they have applied to switch into a different immigration route (including UK asylum claims).
• A refund will not be given where an individual has originally been granted a student visa, but has subsequently received a visa refusal or notice of cancellation of their permission from UK Visas and Immigration (UKVI) for any of the following reasons:
  • Use of deception or misrepresentation, including submission of falsified or fraudulent documents;
  • Cancellation of permission to enter or remain, either prior to travelling to the UK or after arriving in the UK.
• Individuals who receive a visa refusal or cancellation of permission for one of the reasons above may be eligible for a deposit refund if they provide satisfactory evidence to the University of a successful outcome to an Administrative Review application made by them to UKVI, pursuant to which the refusal (or cancellation) is overturned by UKVI. For details of how to apply to the University for a deposit refund following a successful Administrative Review application, please see here.
• If an individual fails to enrol on their programme of study, or withdraws from the programme of study after enrolment, they will not be entitled to a tuition fee deposit refund. In such cases the UKVI will be informed that they have not enrolled on the programme, or that they have withdrawn, or been withdrawn, as applicable.
• If an individual's CAS has been used and/or they have received their Student visa, for a refund application to be considered by the University the applicant is required to provide appropriate and satisfactory evidence to demonstrate that they did not use their visa to travel to the UK, in addition to evidence of exceptional circumstances beyond their control which prevented the applicant from enrolling on their programme of study.
• Individuals who have paid a deposit higher than the base deposit rate (£4,000) and who apply for a refund will automatically be eligible to receive a refund of the difference between £4,000 and the total amount paid. The base deposit of £4,000 remains non-refundable, except as provided for in this policy.
• If an individual defers their programme of study, the deposit will be transferred to the new programme
• If an application for a deposit refund is rejected, the individual may request an appeal of the decision, only if one or more of the following grounds apply:
  • New evidence: They can provide additional information or evidence that supports their eligibility for a refund, which was not available or could not reasonably have been provided at the time of the original refund request.
  • Procedural error: They believe that the refund request was not considered in accordance with the published Tuition Fee Deposit Refund Policy or that the decision-making process was not followed correctly. This must be clearly evidenced.
• Appeal requests must be submitted to within 14 calendar days of the date (of the University’s emailed decision declining the exceptional circumstances refund request).
• Appeal requests must be submitted using the appeal form provided with the University’s emailed decision and must state the grounds upon which the appeal request is made and include additional relevant supporting evidence or information.
• Appeal requests will be automatically rejected where they are submitted after the 14-day period has passed, where the appeal form is incomplete, or where the appeal request is submitted without further relevant evidence or information.
• Appeals will be referred to an independent panel of senior University staff. The panel's decision is final.

Refund processing

• Deposits will be held at least until the start date of the course applied for (or longer) at the discretion of the University, until the relevant checks have been undertaken before paying any agreed refund.
• In line with UK money laundering laws, any fee paid will only be refunded to the person or body who paid the fee.
• Unless stated otherwise, all refunds are subject to a 5% administration fee. This fee will only be levied on the compulsory minimum deposit amount (i.e. the maximum administration fee is £200).

How to apply for a refund

Applicants should complete and return the Request for Refund of Tuition Fee Deposit form.

Refunds will be processed automatically where the University cancels your programme before it starts or cannot run it as planned due to circumstances beyond its control and applicants are not required to submit the form to request this.

Applications for a refund must be received by the University no later than the specified deadline for the intake for which the applicant received an offer to study. The application form must be completed in full and must include all relevant documents in support of the application. The latest dates to apply are as follows:

• For the September intake, the latest date to apply for a refund is 30 November of the same year
• For the January intake, the latest date to apply for a refund is 15 March of the same year
• For the May intake, the latest date to apply for a refund is 15 July of the same year

Full guide to tuition fee deposits