HEP bulletin – October 2022

Last updated: 25 Oct 2022

Academic year 2022/23 registration

You should submit a registration confirmation as soon as the student has enrolled. You can wait 28 calendar days to submit a Not Registered confirmation. This allows the student time to register at a different university or college. If you know that the person is no longer pursuing higher education, you should make the submission as soon as you find out.

Academic year 2022/23 attendance confirmation

You should confirm attendance when the student has started attending the course and has become liable for tuition fees. This means after any cooling off period. You should check any cooling off periods detailed in your student terms and conditions.

Please make attendance confirmations by 13 October for Autumn start students. This'll release the first term fees to you on 19 October. If you have courses validated by another awarding body, you must ensure that the relevant students are registered with them. You must do this before you confirm attendance on the Student Information Service (SIS).

You must check that all student details are correct on both systems before you confirm attendance.

Academic year 2021/22 registration and attendance confirmations

Please continue to prioritise any outstanding registration or attendance confirmations for academic year 2021/22 courses, especially for later intakes. You should follow up all registrations with an appropriate attendance confirmation. You should also clear your Change of Circumstance (CoC) worklists.

If reassessment details are correct, you should reconfirm attendance in acceptance of the changes. If the details are not correct, you should submit a further CoC. It's important for student accounts to be as up to date as possible.

Financial hardship process

Student Finance England (SFE) and Student Finance Wales (SFW) students can apply for a financial hardship review in certain situations.

Common reasons to apply include:
  • financial hardship caused by recovery of previous overpaid funds from current academic year funding
  • suspension from a course due to ill health or other reasons, causing a reduction in current funding and not meeting living costs
The help students can get includes:
  • a deferral of loan and grant overpayments into the next academic year
  • continued payment of all, or some, funding during suspension
  • early payments
  • extension of grant support to the end of the term in which a student has withdrawn
The student must explore all other options of financial help before applying. They must then complete a Financial Hardship Confirmation form. This includes supplying evidence of income and outgoings with 3 months of bank statements. More information for students is available on GOV.UK.

Help your students to stay safe online

At the start of a new academic year, especially around payment dates, students can be the target of phishing and vishing scams. We want students to be aware of the tactics fraudsters use and how to stop them from getting their personal details. Please warn your students and share our updated scam guidance on GOV.UK.

Cyber attacks

Cyber-attacks or security incidents are becoming more prevalent in the education sector. Some of these can result in the loss of our data or restricted access to our systems. This can affect our ability to make payments to our customers.

We've published guidance on what to do if you experience a cyber-attack that means you cannot make data returns to us. Please share it with the appropriate colleagues within your organisation.

Funding Information resource 

Our Funding Information Services team have developed a new information resource. It includes infographics on different topics for you to display on campus. The topics include:

  • Dependants' Grants
  • current year income assessment
  • care leaver support
  • repayment changes

To request this resource, please email fundinginformationpartners@slc.co.uk.

Student Information Service (SIS) training events

These training events provide an overview of SIS, while exploring the relationship between SIS and the other portal services. We'll highlight when and how to take specific actions in SIS to ensure you're compliant with service standards. We'll also talk about how your Account Manager uses SIS data at your account review.

The events will take place throughout October. They're intended for:
  • newly recruited staff at universities and colleges
  • staff in new roles
  • existing staff who need refresher training
Dates and locations:

18 October           Double Tree by Hilton, Leeds City Centre
25 October           Hilton Euston, London
26 October           The BCEC, Birmingham

The cost per delegate is £179 + VAT. You can register to attend on our events website.

Courses Management Service (CMS) webinars

We'll be delivering CMS webinars in November to help on essential points about updating your courses for academic year 2023/24.

These will take place on Wednesday 16 November. There will be a morning session at 10:30am and an afternoon session at 2:30pm.

We'll send more information about how to register soon.

Bursary Administration Service (BAS) Portal Training Events

We'll be delivering training events for subscribers of our bursary service. These will cover how to create bursary awards, the payments process, and reporting and reconciliation. Delegates will receive a refresher on current bursary rules, followed by information about new rules moving forward.

Dates and locations:

19 October            Double Tree by Hilton, Leeds City Centre
26 October            Hilton Euston, London
27 October            The BCEC, Birmingham

These events are available only to existing subscribers and are free of charge. You can register to attend on our events website.