Troubleshooting fees and loans

Find out how to solve problems with your tuition fees, student loan application, or fees-free study—and get help if you're experiencing financial hardship.

Our Student Finance team are here to help you if:

• You’re having trouble navigating StudyLink or Fees Fee requirements.
• You aren’t sure how to finalise your student loan application.
• You rely on StudyLink for your living costs but the money isn't coming through.

Unpaid fees reminder

If you've received an unpaid fees reminder but you think your tuition fees should have been sorted through StudyLink (as part of a student loan) or the Fees Free scheme, you should contact our Fees Advisers to provide an update. Email student-finance@vuw.ac.nz.

To troubleshoot your fees, here are some things you can do:

• If you're paying your fees by student loan, go to your Application Details in the MyStudyLink portal. Make sure that you've answered 'yes' to the 'Pay Fees' question. There are different components to a student loan, and it may be that you haven't actually specified that you want to use your student loan to pay your tuition fees.
• Check that you've actually applied for a student loan to pay your tuition fees. You may have had your application for a student allowance approved, but that will only give you a weekly payment for your living costs—it can't pay your tuition fees.
• If the Fees Free scheme is paying the fees for your first year of tertiary study, use your National Student Number (NSN) on the Fees Free website to check your eligibility status. If it says that your status is ‘unknown’ or ‘maybe’, you should review the eligibility criteria and submit a completed Statutory Declaration to the Fees Free team at the Tertiary Education Commission (TEC).

Student loan problems

If you're having trouble sorting your student loan and running short on funds to cover expenses, contact our Finance Advisers as they may be able to help. Email student-hardship@vuw.ac.nz.

To troubleshoot your student loan, here are some things you can do:

• Check you are enrolled for a full-time workload. This is defined as 48 points in one trimester, or 96 points in two or more trimesters in one year.
• Check the status of your application via the MyStudyLink portal. It may be that there are additional steps to be completed, and that's holding up your loan. Information about what each status means can be found on the StudyLink website.
• If you can't get through to StudyLink on the phone, our Fees Advisers may be able to help, email student-finance@vuw.ac.nz. Keep trying StudyLink in the meantime.