Receiving your loan

When will I receive my federal loan disbursements?

Federal loans originated by Ravensbourne will be disbursed in two equal instalments for undergraduate students and three equal instalments for postgraduate students, one at the beginning of each semester.   

The actual GBP sterling you receive will vary as it is dependent upon the exchange rate from USD $ to GBP £ at the time of disbursement. 

Expected disbursement dates for 2024/25

For Undergraduates:

23 September 2024 
20 January 2025 

For Postgraduates:

23 September 2024 
20 January 2025 
26 May 2025 

Please note these dates are subject to change, we will aim to update students of any change to the advertised schedule.

If you are a first year, first time borrower, your first payment will be delayed by 30 days.

Please ensure you have sufficient funds to cover two weeks of maintenance costs should your loan be delayed for any reason.

All disbursements are subject to the following conditions

  • You are making satisfactory academic progress
  • You are enrolled at least part time
  • You are not in USA
  • You have not violated any federal compliance regulations (repayment default, fraud, drugs, etc)
  • You will be advised by email that a disbursement is due and its value and how much is due to be deducted from it. When you receive this email, you may contact us to reduce or cancel the disbursement.

Warning: if you don't warn us in advance not to draw down your disbursement, then you will be responsible for all interest charges and for its repayment.

Deadlines: To ensure your loan is disbursed in time the Ravensbourne US Loans Office must have received your completed application by 8 August 2020. Any applications received after this date will be deemed late applications and as such disbursements will fall outside of the advertised dates. If you fall into this category we will email you to advise of the next available disbursement dates.

When your loan payment will be available

All email correspondence will be via your Ravensbourne email address. When your payment has been transferred to your UK bank account you will be notified via email.

When we initiate disbursement, if there is anything which blocks yours, we will immediately contact you by email and tell you what to do.

If you did not get your complete application pack to Ravensbourne before 8 August 2020 your loans may not be available until the end of October 2020.

If your loan disbursement is not enough to cover one third of your tuition, then there may not be a bank transfer.

Opening a bank account in the UK

It takes up to 10 days to open a bank account in the UK. You can't start to open an account until you are enrolled and have a proved address.

How much money you will get and in which currency

Ravensbourne will deduct one third of the tuition fee each term. You will only get one third of your loans each term, this is a USDE regulation, there are deductions taken from that value.

The government deducts an 'Origination Fee' from each disbursement. The COA spreadsheet you completed at application showed how much you can borrow and how much you actually receive after the government deducts an 'Origination Fee' from each loan disbursement. The value you are going to receive is shown on the letter sent to you by Ravensbourne when we originated your loan.

The money is transferred to the UK and converted into sterling (£). The school is not allowed to charge any fee or receive any commission for processing your loan, so the money received by you is exactly what the school received in sterling.

The balance is paid to you by bank transfer to a UK bank account

If the value of your disbursement does not cover all the deductions, you will not receive a transfer. If you have only applied for Sub/Unsub loans, it is unlikely that you will receive a transfer but will have to pay the shortfall in tuition yourself.

Deferments

If you have previous loans which need repayment deferment, then you will need to request a deferment form from [email protected]. This is a document which we issue on request and are not able to sign any deferment forms until after you have enrolled.

You must email [email protected] to request a form.

We will advise you by email when it is ready for collection from the Information Desk on level 4, requests are completed within 3-5 business days.