Terms and Conditions must be accepted through your UNA Portal.

University of North Alabama Terms & Conditions Governing Financial Aid Awards

Your acceptance of financial aid indicates that you have read and understand all related terms and conditions of your award(s). You are strongly encouraged to read this entire document and retain a copy for your records.

Please remember that your entire Financial Aid Award is subject to change based on availability of funds and any updated information provided to or received by the Office of Student Financial Aid.  The financial aid identified on your Award Notification is being offered to you with the following terms and conditions:

• You must be enrolled as a degree-seeking student at UNA.
• You must be a U.S. citizen or eligible non-citizen.
• Special students, transient students, early scholars, and unclassified students are not eligible for Title IV federal student aid, including Federal Direct Stafford Loans and Federal Direct PLUS Loans. UNA does not certify private loans for transient students.

The Office of Student Financial Aid (OSFA) reserves the right to make policy changes which may affect your eligibility for future financial aid.  Failure to comply with financial aid policies may result in the need for you to repay aid already received.

Enrollment Requirements

Your award is based on the assumption that you will be enrolled full-time. Full-time status is 12 credit hours for undergraduates and 9 credit hours for graduate students, in courses leading to your degree program. To be eligible for most financial aid you must be enrolled and maintain at least half-time status.

If you drop classes, withdraw, or make other academic changes, your financial aid awards may be adjusted and repayment may be required. Federal grant awards are based on full-time enrollment of 12 credit hours per semester. If you enroll less than full-time, your financial aid awards, including the Federal Pell Grant, and the Federal Supplemental Educational Opportunity Grant (SEOG), will be reduced or canceled.

Please Note: Your Summer financial aid award offer(s) will be manually processed based upon your initial enrollment. If you make changes to your schedule prior to the Summer freeze date, please contact our office for review.

If you stop attending classes without officially withdrawing, your financial aid awards may be adjusted and repayment may be required.

If you drop below 6 credit hours (undergraduate)/5 credit hours (graduate) in any semester, all remaining student loan disbursement(s) in the current academic year will be canceled. You may request that you be re-awarded student loan money for the remaining semesters in the academic year. It is your responsibility to request re-awarding of your student loan money. Your student loan for the following semester will be disbursed in two installments, with one-half of your loan funds disbursed at the beginning of the next semester and the second half of your loan funds disbursed at mid-semester.

It is your responsibility to understand that students withdrawing from UNA should follow the UNA Withdrawal Policy and Procedures.  The federal government has implemented a withdrawal policy for institutions called the Return of Title IV funds.  If you receive financial aid and withdraw before the sixty (60) percent point of your enrollment for the term, you may be required to repay any refund received and other aid disbursed on your student account.  You will be notified, in writing, of the amount that must be repaid.

You will be responsible for repaying any funds you receive that exceed your financial need, or if for any reason, you become ineligible for the financial aid.

You may receive Federal Pell Grant at only one college or university during the semester.

UNA reserves the right to reduce or cancel your awards at any time. Revisions/Cancellation may result from changes in admission status, enrollment, classification, residency, housing status, changes in the availability of funds, or receipt of other awards.

Satisfactory Academic Progress

You must maintain Satisfactory Academic Progress (SAP) toward a degree program or certificate program to be eligible for Federal Student Aid. Your academic progress will be checked at the end of each academic semester. You must meet the following standards of academic progress:

1. Grade Point Average (GPA). The student must meet the University’s minimum academic GPA requirements for the student’s respective academic class level. Refer to the Scholastic Standards section of Academic Procedures and Requirements in the current UNA catalog.
2. Percentage of Course Hours Completed. A student must complete at least 67% of all course hours attempted at UNA. All course hours attempted at UNA, including any course hours which may have been dropped or for which the student did not receive a passing grade, are included in this calculation. Effective July 1, 2011, any transfer course hours accepted by UNA will be included in this calculation. There is no academic forgiveness of course hours attempted for federal calculation purposes even though the student may apply for and receive the benefit of the University’s repeat/recompute policy or Second Chance provision.
3. Maximum Time Frame. A student is allowed a maximum of 180 course hours to complete undergraduate degree requirements for a 1st degree and a maximum of 216 course hours to complete the requirements for a 2nd undergraduate degree.  The maximum number of allowable graduate courses varies by program.

Please review the SAP policy at Satisfactory Academic Progress Policy.  (Insert Hyperlink) https://www.una.edu/financial-aid/satisfactory-academic-progress.html

Repeated Coursework

34 CFR 668.2: Amends definition of full-time student to allow repeated coursework to count toward enrollment status in term-based programs.

• Students may repeat previously passed courses only ONCE and receive financial aid.
• Students may repeat a failed course(s) until it is passed and receive financial aid as long as Satisfactory Academic Progress is maintained.

Disbursement of Federal Funds

The financial aid is disbursed based on your enrollment at that time. If you have received financial aid and are not enrolled full time, your aid will be reviewed and possibly adjusted after drop/add. If you plan to drop classes and/or be enrolled part time (less than 12 hours for undergraduates, less than 9 hours for graduates), the Student Financial Aid Office advises that you do not cash or spend your financial aid refund and contact the Financial Aid Office for review of your financial aid award based on your anticipated part time enrollment status.

You will receive financial aid in two installments (one half is disbursed for fall semester; the second half for spring semester), unless otherwise noted. Disbursements are made directly to your student account.

If you are a first-time freshman student borrower, your first loan disbursement will be delayed until 30 days after the beginning of your first term at UNA. This will occur only during the first semester of the student’s attendance at the university.

If you are receiving a federal student loan for one semester, i.e. Fall term only or Spring term only, your loan will be disbursed in two installments with one disbursement at the beginning of the semester and the second disbursement at mid-semester.

If the total financial aid paid to your student account exceeds your total charges, a refund will be issued to you by the UNA Office of Student Accounts.

Outstanding requirements may prevent your financial aid from disbursing in a timely manner. To prevent this from occurring, please check your outstanding requirements by logging into your UNA Portal account.

Receipt of Federal Funds

When all requirements have been met, your financial aid will disburse into your student account at UNA.

Federal aid funds will pay tuition, fees, contracted room and board (where applicable), textbooks at the UNA Bookstore, and other related educational expenses.  If all charges have been paid and a credit results, remaining federal funds will be returned to the student via a refund.

Receipt of Scholarship Funds

Scholarships are applied toward the payment of the University of North Alabama tuition and fees, on-campus room and board, and textbooks at the UNA bookstore. Scholarships may have additional award criteria, specifics, or restrictions - please review your award letter carefully for individual and/or endowed scholarship guidelines.

Institutional scholarships are non-refundable. Refer to the Business Refund Policy for additional information.

Refunds will not be available before the first class day of each semester.

University Scholarships

Scholarship funds will be credited to your UNA student account. The University of North Alabama will not pay any amount of your scholarship award directly to you in the form of check, cash, direct deposit or debit card.

Payment of your scholarship award is contingent upon funds being provided by the University of North Alabama or the University of North Alabama Foundation. All scholarship awards are subject to change depending on fund availability, budgetary constraints, and the size/quality of the applicant pool.

Your student billing statement may list different funding sources for your scholarship.  However, the total amount of your scholarship each semester will equal the amount stated in your award letter. 

Excellence Scholarships are for incoming freshmen entering UNA immediately after graduation from high school. As a rule, a student may receive no more than one UNA Excellence Scholarship.

All scholarship offers are time sensitive and must be accepted by the date specified in your scholarship award letter. Scholarship offers are subject to cancellation if not accepted within the stated offer period.

The Office of Student Financial Aid (SFA) will check grades of all first-year Excellence Scholarship recipients at the end of the fall semester. SFA will cancel the spring semester scholarship award for any Excellence Scholarship recipient who earns below a 2.30 semester GPA in his/her first semester at UNA.

Students who receive a renewable university scholarship must meet the minimum renewal criteria outlined in their award letter, to include meeting minimal GPA requirements and pass 27 hours within the fall and spring semesters.  Only hours completed successfully at the University of North Alabama during the current aid year will be considered for renewal requirements. Hours completed at other institutions do not count towards the hour requirement for your scholarship. Hours completed in the previous academic year or as an early college student do not count towards renewal requirements. All scholarship renewals are reviewed based on the institutional UNA GPA. 

Each respective academic department or college may send their own scholarship award notification to the student(s) selected for Endowed scholarship awards by the department or college. However, scholarship award notification letters sent by the academic departments or colleges are not official and shall not be legally binding upon the University. The official notification of the scholarship award will come from the Office of Student Financial Aid after verification of funding for payment of the scholarship offer has been verified.

You must enroll in at least 12 undergraduate hours at UNA each semester for which this scholarship is payable in order to receive credit for the scholarship. Credit hours for which you register at another university will not be considered to achieve a total of twelve (12) or more undergraduate enrolled hours.  Scholarship awards are payable 50% in the fall semester and 50% in the spring semester.

It is your responsibility to be aware of the amount your scholarship is eligible to pay.

Your scholarship award is not payable for graduate course hours, even if you should enroll in graduate courses at the same time you are enrolled for undergraduate courses. Any graduate hours for which you might be enrolled will not be included with undergraduate hours to achieve a minimum total of 12 hours for the semester.

If you do not fulfill the terms applicable to the scholarships, you may be required to repay all or part of the scholarship.

If you drop classes or withdraw after receiving credit for the scholarship, any refund will be distributed proportionately to the scholarship account, according to the established UNA policy. For example, if your tuition charge is reduced by 50%, then your scholarship award will be reduced by 50%.

If you completely withdraw from all courses during any semester while receiving your scholarship, all remaining semesters of your scholarship, if any, will be canceled. (no exceptions: ex. Medical withdrawal)

Your scholarship award is payable for only fall and spring semesters of the academic year, unless specifically stated in a separate scholarship agreement.

You must enroll in consecutive Fall-Spring semesters to continue to receive your scholarship. Your scholarship is not eligible to be deferred to a later semester or a later academic year than what is stated, unless specifically approved in writing by the Director of Student Financial Aid.

It is absolutely your responsibility to be aware of the minimum renewal requirements for GPA and credit hours earned for your scholarship to be renewed from semester-to-semester or year-to-year. The Office of Student Financial Aid is not responsible or liable for reminding or notifying you of the minimum renewal requirements for your scholarship. You may request this information from the Office of Student Financial Aid.

Your scholarship will not be renewed to the next semester or next academic year until the minimum academic requirements for your scholarship renewal have been recorded and posted by the Office of the Registrar. It is your responsibility to ensure that grade reports from another university, either foreign or domestic, are provided to the Office of the Registrar for recording and posting.

Your failure to read and understand these terms and conditions neither releases you from the responsibility of complying with these terms and conditions, nor from the liability associated with the loss of your scholarship award for failure to meet the academic renewal requirements.

Under the Family Educational Rights and Privacy Act (FERPA) of 1974, and as amended, I understand that my educational records cannot be released without my written permission. I therefore authorize the release of my education records from the University of North Alabama (UNA) to my Endowed Scholarship donor in order to share educational records without violation of FERPA. I understand this release agreement will be in effect as long as I am receiving an Endowed Scholarship from said donor and I have the right to rescind this release agreement at any time by notifying the Office of Student Financial Aid at UNA. 

PLEASE NOTE: The Financial Aid Office sends all communication to your UNA e-mail address. It is your responsibility to keep your UNA e-mail account active and to check your messages frequently.

Be sure to file a renewal FAFSA each academic year to continue receiving financial aid.