Unclassified Studies or Qualifying Year

In order to be eligible to apply for government student grants and loans, all students must be fully admitted to a loan eligible program. A temporary exception* to this requirement is:

• if you cannot be admitted to a first or subsequent undergraduate credential without first completing specific courses necessary to meet published mandatory entrance requirements or
• if you have completed an undergraduate degree and must complete additional courses (new, excludes retaking courses to improve a grade) before being eligible for admission to a graduate program,

then you may be eligible to apply for up to no more than 52 weeks of assistance over your lifetime and should use the Unclassified Studies program code when selecting your program in your loan application.

The program to which you are seeking admission at TRU or elsewhere must be designated eligible for full-time government student loans.

Students using the Unclassified Studies program in their loan application are required to provide finaid@tru.ca with a rationale. Please demonstrate why you are not yet eligible for admission to a program and provide supporting documentation. Please list the program to which you have sought or will seek admission and the individual courses that you lack to be admissible to that program. Supporting documentation may be a web page listing admission criteria, a letter of denial from Admissions, or other evidence that demonstrates the need to complete unclassified/qualifying studies in order to be admitted to the desired program.

NOTE:  If TRU Admissions has admitted you to Exploratory Studies or Undeclared (for Open Learning), these are not eligible for any funding apart from the above two specific situations.  However, if you are also fully admitted to a fall intake (with your deposit paid) of an undergraduate or graduate diploma or degree program eligible for loan funding, you may apply for student loan & grant funding in the prior summer semester only using that program name.  In order to receive loan funding, all courses taken in this prior summer term must fulfill mandatory graduation requirements in the program to which you are admitted.

Unclassified Studies may not be used to obtain a general year standing that may be required for admission. For example, completing 60 undergraduate credits in order to apply for the Bachelor of Education degree.

*StudentAid BC Policy Manual 2023-24 pg. 35 & 195.