HEP bulletin - July 2026

Last updated: 30 Jul 2026

End of year cleardown

Please continue to prioritise any outstanding registration or attendance confirmations for academic year (AY) 2025/26 courses. There are concerns around the number of students registered with outstanding attendance confirmations. This includes students starting courses in autumn, winter or spring of AY 2025/26 and for prior years. These could cause a higher level of maintenance support overpayments or represent a shortfall in your fee loan income.

You should follow up all registrations with an appropriate attendance confirmation. You should also clear your Change of Circumstance (CoC) worklists.

Please check your worklists for any outstanding confirmations from previous years. If reassessment details are correct, you should reconfirm attendance in acceptance of the changes. If the details are not correct, please contact our Partners Support Desk to have these changed. It’s important for student accounts to be as up to date as possible.

Student information

You can view AY 2026/27 approved applications in the Student Information Service (SIS) by logging in through the HE Gateway. There's further guidance on how to view student information on the HEP Services website.

It’s good practice to check this before the start of the academic year. Then you can make amendments to applications before the first day of term. You can use the appropriate pre-liability CoC options to change the tuition fee amount or receiving provider.

Please compare SIS to your own student management system records and prompt students to apply for support if they’ve not already done so. This will also help us to process applications before the start of term. We do this to minimise any shortfall on our initial tuition fee payment instalments.

Self-service for Student Finance England (SFE) and Student Finance Wales (SFW)

Please encourage students to use their student finance account. This is available to all SFE and SFW undergraduate students.

When applicants sign in, they'll select the application they want to view.

Our phone lines are very busy during peak times. Please remind your students they do not need to call us to track the progress of their application. It’s quicker and easier to use their student finance account. They can also make changes to their course choice, requested fee amount or their personal information using their account.

Awarding body registrations

When validating your own courses or if they're validated by another awarding body, you must make sure students register with the correct awarding body. You must do this before you confirm attendance on SIS.

In preparation for AY 2026/27, please review internal processes to make sure you remain compliant with this process.

Check that all details are correct on SIS and the awarding body before you confirm attendance. This includes:

  • student details
  • the level of qualification
  • that the student's application is against the correct course and the course names match

Editing course information

Editing course details after students have submitted applications can affect their assessment.

If you need to edit a course after we've assessed students, you must contact ssin_queries@slc.co.uk. You can find guidance on editing undergraduate courses on the HEP Services website.

We'll then ask you to fill in a course change form before you make the change on CMS.

Postgraduate Master's Loan eligibility reminder

Students who already hold an equivalent or higher level qualification (ELQ) are generally not eligible for Postgraduate Master's Loan funding. This includes an integrated master's degree. If you, or anyone else in your organisation, are aware that a student holds an ELQ, you should let us know as soon as possible by contacting the Partner Support Desk. This will ensure we assess funding eligibility correctly and prevent us from making incorrect payments.

Recent reviews have identified cases where students with integrated master's qualifications received Postgraduate Master's Loan funding in error. It's important you notify us of any known prior qualifications in a timely manner.

Students can now apply for AY 2026/27 postgraduate finance and support funding

Applications for 2026/27 postgraduate funding are now open for SFE and SFW students. New and returning postgraduate students can apply for master's and doctoral loans. Students who have already applied for undergraduate student finance can use their existing online account to submit an application. Continuing students do not need to reapply, as their funding will roll forward. However, they should check that their personal details are up to date.

Students may also be eligible for Disabled Students' Allowance (DSA). They can apply early to make sure support is in place before their course begins. Eligible students will need to submit a separate DSA application. They should provide supporting evidence of their:

  • disability
  • health condition
  • mental health condition
  • specific learning difficulty

You can find more information on DSA on GOV.UK.

LLE course collection and provider readiness

Thank you to all of you who have confirmed your readiness for LLE course collection. We're still awaiting responses from some providers. If you have not yet confirmed your readiness status to us, please speak with your LLE lead contact. They should respond to the LLE Enquiries mailbox. This applies even if you are not planning to submit any courses for teaching from January 2027 onwards in AY 2026/27. Please let us know if this is the case. It is important that we have a complete picture of provider intentions.

Now that course collection is underway, before contacting the Partner Support Desk or the SSIN team, please first review:

As course collection is currently the primary activity, providers should contact SSIN for course policy-related queries during this period. Continue to direct other LLE-related queries to the LLE enquiries team wherever possible.

Taking this approach will:

  • support the ongoing development of FAQs and guidance materials
  • help us refine existing guidance based on common themes and feedback
  • make sure that SSIN's efforts remain focused on the areas where their policy expertise adds the greatest value