The submission of Exit Counseling is mandatory before students withdraw or graduate.  Exit Counseling helps you understand student rights and responsibilities as a loan borrower and provides useful tips to help manage loans.  Exit Counseling can be completed via StudentLoans.gov.

At Imperial, we request all US loan recipients to complete Exit Counseling before the final disbursement.

Student Financial Support will email a copy of the Exit Counseling Guide produced by the US Department of Education to students who fail to complete exit counselling.

Information on the following topics can be found on our US student loans webpages

• Types of Loans
• How to Apply
• Eligibility requirements
• Methods and frequency of disbursements of receiving loans
• Rights and responsibilities of students receiving Title IV assistance
• Terms and Conditions
• Satisfactory Academic Progress (SAP) Reports

Programme information for prospective students is available at:

• Programmes for undergraduate students and
• Programmes for postgraduate students.

Imperial College London is one of the degree-awarding bodies recognised under S.214 of the Education Reform Act 1988. It is listed on the Recognised bodies page on the Gov.uk webpages.

The College Charter and Statute gives Imperial its degree awarding powers.

Imperial’s main regulatory body is the Office for Students (OfS).

The individual faculty/department webpages provide details of courses taught in each faculty/department. These further provide details of accrediting agencies and governmental bodies which approve, accredit or license the school.

Tuition fee information is available at:

• Tuition fees for undergraduate students
• Tuition fees for Master's students
• Tuition fees for Doctoral students

Our Cost of living in London webpage provides information about:

• room and board
• books and supplies
• transportation costs
• other costs.

These estimated costs have been incorporated in the Cost of Attendance (COA) Excel documents,  which are used to determine applicant's borrowing limits. 

If you interrupt your study, withdraw or fall below half-time enrolment you must inform the Student Fees team immediately.

You may request a refund of your tuition fees if you withdraw from your study. The refund is calculated on the period of your attendance on the course.

Further information about the refund policy via our Tuition Fees refunds page. Please contact the the Student Financial Support team team to request a refund upon withdrawal.

Under US Federal law, we are required to report any changes your enrolment within tight timescales. These include identifying any withdrawal within 14 days. We may be required to complete a Return to Title IV (R2T4) calculation and arrange for any ‘unearned’ loan funds to be returned to the US Department of Education. If the unearned funds have been paid to you, you may have to return these. However we will inform you of this by email. Please read the Return of Title IV Funds Policy for further details.

Loan funds must be returned in the following order:

1. Federal Direct Loans
2. Federal Direct Sunsubsidized loans (awarded to undergraduate students only)
3. Federal PLUS and Grad PLUS loans.

The Family Educational Rights and Privacy Act (FERPA) does not apply in the UK.

The EU’s General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR) and the UK Data Protection Act 2018 are new laws which have replaced the 1998 Data Protection Act. You can find more on our Data Protection website.

Imperial will report attendance to National Students Loan Data System (NSLDS).  Students can find information on the data they have consented to share in their MPNs/MPNs.

This information is available on our Imperial College Health Care Centre webpages.

 A list of vaccine recommendations is available on the Occupational Health webpage.

Information about services and facilities for students with disabilities including intellectual disabilities, is available from the Disability Advisory Service.

These are defined on our US student loans webpage and also on the Federal Direct Loans and Federal Student Aid webpages.

These can be found on the Regulations webpage.

If you borrow Federal loans we will submit details of your loan and enrolment to National Student Loan Data System (NSLDS).  

Under strict regulations we are required to confirm your enrolment status every 60 days therefore please inform us immediately should you wish to Change, interrupt or withdraw from your course.

This data will be accessible by guarantee agencies, lenders and schools determined to be authorised users of the data system.

Information about any required and recommended textbooks for your course will be provided to you by your department.

Please contact the relevant department for specific information about textbooks.

Information on the university’s retention rate is available on the UKPIs: Non-continuation rates webpages of the Higher Education Statistics Agency (HESA) website.

The projected outcomes (table T5) on the HESA website gives the percentage of full time undergraduates entering the institution.

This information is available via the Higher Education Statistics Agency (HESA) website and our internal What do Imperial graduates do? webpage.

Information about file sharing and copyright material is available via our webpages on:

• Information Systems Security Policies
• Connect and communicate 
• Plagiarism awareness

Details of the student disciplinary procedure can be found on the E2: Code of Student Discipline webpages.

Information about applying for private educational loans is available on the private loans page on our US student loans wepbage. 

Imperial will work with all private lenders as long as they are happy to issue loans to our students. 

At present, we are aware of one lender offering private loans, this is Sallie Mae.  Please note that Sallie Mae is not a preferred lender and this does not represent a preferred lender arrangement.

The Private Loan Self Certification Form may be useful to students.

Students are given advice about the dangers of alcohol and substance misuse via our Alcohol and Drugs and Student Support Zone pages.

Students are prohibited from the use or possession of drugs on College accommodation and this is covered in the Accommodation Contract available via our Terms and Conditions webpage.

The Student regulations and Ordinance E provides further information about the procedures to be followed when dealing with student disciplinary offences of a non academic nature.

Drug convictions will effect eligibility to the US federal loans and this has been outlined in section 483 of the Higher Education Act 1965.  Eligibility to the US federal loans will be suspended if the conviction occurs whilst a student is in receipt of loan funds. In such cases, students will be liable for returning any us loans received during this ineligible period. The College will provide you with written notice of your loss of eligibility and advise on the methods of regaining eligibility.

Students may regain eligibility early by 

1. Completing an approved drug rehabilitation program or
2. By passing two unannounced drug administered by an approved drug rehabilitation program.

Students with previous drugs convictions will be provided with a worksheet which needs to be completed to determine whether your conviction affects your eligibility. This will be sent to applicants as soon as they disclose the conviction when submitting the FAFSA.

The Home Office provide a list of penalties imposed on drugs convictions in the UK.

You can see Imperial's Missing Student Policy here.

Entrance Counseling provides information about the loan process and explains your responsibilities and rights as a student borower. US Regulations require all first time borrowers to complete entrance counselling.

We require all applicants to complete entrance counselling via Studentloans.gov and submit this when applying for the US Federal Loans.

The Entrance Counseling must be in place prior to any funds being disbursed from the U.S Department of Education.

One of the eligibility requirements to receive a Direct PLUS Loan is that the applicant must not have an adverse credit history. A credit check is performed to determine whether a Direct PLUS Loan applicant meets this requirement.

Applicants with adverse credit resulting from a credit check completed, may still be eligible to a Direct PLUS loan

1. By using an endorser who agrees to repay the Direct PLUS Loan if the applicant does not pay it. Endorsers must not have adverse credit history.
2. By documenting to the satisfaction of the U.S. Department of Education that there are extenuating circumstances related to your adverse credit history

If you apply for a PLUS loan and are notified of adverse credit you will be sent information about the above options to become eligible for the loans together with instructions on how to complete PLUS counseling.

Further information about this is available via Studentaid.ed.gov.

Imperial's Title IV Code of Conduct is as follows:

In order to prohibit a conflict of interest of an agent with respect to private education loans, all staff at the university with responsibility for US loans are prohibited from the following:

• Revenue-sharing arrangements with any lender
• Receiving gifts from a lender, a guarantor, or a loan servicer
• Contracting arrangements providing financial benefit from any lender or affiliate of a lender
• Directing borrowers to particular lenders, or refusing or delaying loan certifications
• Offers of funds for private loans
• Call centre or financial aid office staffing assistance
• Advisory board compensation.

All staff with responsibility for US loans are reminded at least annually of the code.

See Imperial's Default Management Plan.

Imperial does not provide loans for Gainful Employment (GE) programs.

Due to the regulations set out by the US Education Department, and our current certification for Title IV funds, we are unable to provide Federal Aid for some of our programmes (courses). These ineligible courses are:

• MBA (Global online)
• MBA (Executive)
• MBA (Weekend)
• MBBS (clinical Medicine programmes)
• MA/MSc in Global Innovation Design
• Healthcare and Design (2YPT)
• Postgraduate Certificates
• Postgraduate Diplomas
• Distance Learning Courses
• Courses which involve study at an ineligible school

You may be able to request private loans via Sallie Mae.

Leave of Absence (LoA) Policy

A Leave of Absence must meet certain conditions to be considered as a temporary interruption in a student’s education instead of being counted as a withdrawal requiring us to perform a Return to Title IV (R2T4) calculation.

If the student’s absence does not meet the conditions outlined below the student is considered to have ceased attendance and to have withdrawn from the school, and we are required to perform an R2T4 calculation.

For an LOA to qualify as approved:

• The student must request, and College must approve the LOA in accordance with Imperial's policy.
• There must be a reasonable expectation that the student will return from LOA.
• Imperial cannot assess the student with any additional institutional charges.
• The LOA, together with any additional leave of absence, must not exceed a total of 180 days in any 12-month period.
• If the student has a Title IV loan, Imperial must explain to the student prior to their leave the effects that their failure to return from an LOA may have on the loan repayment terms, including the expiration of the grace period. Please see the Student Zone page detailing the LOA policy.
• Imperial may not disburse Direct Loan funds to a student on an LOA. Your loan eligibility will be reassessed when you return from LOA and enrolled at least half-time.
  
  

Information about graduate outcomes is available on the Graduate Outcomes survey website.

The timeframes and methodology associated with this survey are also explained on this website. Data specific to Imperial is available on our Careers Service website.

For undergraduate courses, you can also view useful statistics from the DLHE Survey and National Student Survey via the information available through Discover Uni.

See Imperial's Safeguarding Policy.