Just wanted to make a quick post to encourage anyone who’s trying to go back to university later in life or who needs to understand the process of making an SFE application.
I dropped out of university in 2024 I was really struggling with my mental health, fast forward to 2025 I get diagnosed with ADHD and dyslexia. That same year I made an application to go back to university to continue studying Law, unfortunately that application later got cancelled because I didn’t apply correctly - I applied to transfer to another university I wanted to go to that year on a previous application, not the smartest thing but that’s besides the point. I remember being so disappointed because I wanted to go back and study even though I no longer had an interest in Law, at a certain point I just accepted that Law wasn’t for me, I didn’t have a network, I didn’t have any internship experience, so I moved on.
Now in 2026, I gained an interest in Marketing/PR, I have always liked beauty and fashion those are my personal interests but I didn’t think it would be possible to join my interests with my studies, bearing in mind I’ve been studying Law since sixth form. But I did research into careers after getting a degree and what I would be studying, I did short courses to understand it a bit more and eventually I came across a LinkedIn post of someone that had studied through the Fashion Retail Academy. They offer accelerated degrees in fashion related courses and lo and behold they do one in Marketing and Communications.
I made my application with SFE once again, I uploaded my personal letter explaining my circumstances and why I wanted to go back to university and why I couldn’t complete my studies the first time. I also uploaded evidence of my ADHD/Dyslexia, so diagnostic reports as well as evidence of me getting DSA whilst at university.
Unfortunately this wasn’t sufficient evidence, they replied saying they need more evidence. I reached out to my old university asking if there was anyway they could help me out, and they wrote me an official letter explaining why I dropped out of university, detailing that I failed multiple years and had to do 2 repeats while I was there. I uploaded that two weeks ago, and yesterday I got an email that I’ve been awarded two years of funding.
This has been such a long process and I thought I would never be in a position to go back to study but this is to give anyone an understanding of the reasons you could get awarded CPR. University isn’t for everyone but I’ve found a reason to go back and I’m genuinely so grateful that this has worked out for me!!
EDIT - just for context I started uni at 18 in 2021, repeated 2 years then dropped out in 2024 because I failed a repeat year. I’m now going back to uni at 23.