HEP bulletin - December 2024

Registration and attendance confirmations

Thank you for your timely return of registration and attendance confirmations. We've noted an improvement in results for academic year (AY) 2024/25.

Please keep prioritising outstanding registration or attendance confirmations for AY 2024/25 courses. You should follow up all registrations with an appropriate attendance confirmation.

Make sure to submit an 'N' (not registered) or another appropriate attendance code for students who've not enrolled. You should also clear your Change of Circumstance (CoC) worklists.

Please also check your registration and attendance worklists for previous years' outstanding confirmations. If reassessment details are correct, you should reconfirm attendance in acceptance of the changes made. This will let us release payments or recover overpayments. If the details are not correct, please contact our Partners Support Desk to change this.

Tuition fee changes for AY 2025/26

Maximum tuition fees for undergraduate students starting or continuing full-time and part-time courses, at approved (fee cap) providers in 2025 to 2026 academic year will be increased by 3.1%

Ministers have confirmed that Scottish institutions will be able to charge students from the rest of the UK the maximum fee of £9,535. This is in line with the maximum amount English institutions will charge.

The Scottish Government will also make the necessary changes to allow Scottish-domiciled students studying in the rest of the UK to access an increased tuition fee loan of £9,535. This is to cover the cost of their tuition fees from AY 2025/26 onwards.

DfE Northern Ireland (NI) will make the same changes to enable flexibility for NI providers. These changes will also apply to NI domiciled students studying outside of Northern Ireland.

Designated providers outside Wales can also plan on the assumption that Welsh domiciled students will be eligible for the full fee loan of up to £9,535 (or equivalents). Welsh Ministers are considering an equivalent increase to the tuition fee limits in Wales and will confirm this in due course.

Providers can raise tuition fees by inflation for returning students if this is set out clearly in terms and conditions. It also needs to link to an objective outlined in their access and participation plan.

These changes will apply from 1 August 2025. You can find more information on GOV.UK.

Lower level fee-limit

AY 2025/26 will see new lower-fee limits introduced in England for 'classroom-based' foundation years. The maximum fee limit will now be £5,760.

'Classroom-based' means students in OfS price group D. They're taught in a classroom setting with no laboratory, studio, or fieldwork elements.

We determine which courses this lower fee limit applies to by using Higher Education Classification of Subjects (HECoS) codes. This is under the specified common aggregation hierarchy (CAH) 03 groupings.

All other foundation years will continue charging the higher fee foundation year study limit — which has a maximum fee limit of £9,535.

Bursary Administration Service (BAS)

You should now be finalising and activating your bursary awards for AY 2024/25. If you need to delay activation, please notify your Account Manager to keep them informed.

Changes to customer contact channel operating hours

We're adjusting our contact service opening times, we're making this change so that we can continue to support students at the times they contact us the most.

Please update your current resources to reflect these new hours when giving information or guidance to students, there will be no change to Partner Support Desk opening times.

We’ve listed the impacted students contact services.

Telephone lines:

Apply to pay

From Saturday 30 November, our phone lines will be closed on Saturday and Sunday.

From Monday 2 December, these are the new opening hours for these telephone lines:

Monday to Friday, 8am to 7pm:

• SFE Undergraduate (0300 100 0607)
• SFE Postgraduate Loans (0300 100 0031)
• SFNI Undergraduate (0300 100 0077)
• SFNI Postgraduate (0300 100 0493)
• Scottish Loan Payments (0300 100 0609)
• EU/Tuition Fee Only students (0141 243 3570)
• Advanced Learner Loans (0300 100 0619)
• Bursaries Helpline (0300 100 0612)

Repayments

Our opening hours are changing from Monday 2 December. The new opening hours and the lines affected are:

Monday to Friday, 8am to 7pm:

• SLC Repayment line (0300 100 0611)
• Overseas (Outside the UK) line (+44 141 243 3660)

Monday to Friday, 8am to 6pm:

• Welsh language line (0300 100 0370)

Monday to Thursday, 8am to 7pm and Friday, 8am to 5:30pm:

• Behind on your repayments from being abroad (0141 243 3970)

Live chat and social media:

Monday to Friday, 8am to 7pm:

• Student Finance England live chat
• Repayments social media

Monday to Friday, 10am to 4pm:

• Student Finance Wales live chat

Students can find information on the new opening times through their online accounts. This information will also be available on our ‘contact us’ pages and the contact centre call response messages from 29 November.