Bursary Administration Service


The Bursary Administration Service (BAS), formerly HEBSS, is a contracted service, paid for by those who subscribe to its use. The system allows you to assess your students for additional, bursary, scholarship and fee waiver funding. We process more than £200M in bursary payments each academic year.

BAS operates on a not-for-profit model. We invest all funds raised back into maintaining and enhancing the service.

The service has a steering group which meets twice a year and helps us to keep you and your students at the centre of what we do.

How it works

BAS gathers information from student finance applications. Additionally, we use your attendance confirmations as a means of triggering student payments.

The application information, including household income, is made available to you as soon as we have it so that you can assess student awards.

Information for English, Welsh and Northern Irish domiciled students is automatically included. Scottish student information, although shown in the same format, is gathered separately from the Student Awards Agency Scotland (SAAS).

Bursaries are also available for students on eligible postgraduate initial teacher training courses in England who are not employed as teachers.

This makes BAS an efficient solution for identifying students who could benefit from further financial help.

With core and full service options available, you decide what type of service you need and how you use it.

A process flow chart for the Bursaries Administration Service. Step 1, an application is received. Step 2, Application data is passed to the BAS portal. Step 3, set up is completed for automatic or manual awards. Step 4, Awards are approved. Step 5, Student Loans Company will draw down funds from the Higher Education Provider. Step 6, Payment of the bursary is made to the student.

Service level options

Full service

Subscription to our full service will let you:

  • set up award rules
  • set up payment profiles
  • make payments (automatic and manual awards)
  • issue correspondence to students
  • customise award letters with your logo and content
  • submit award rules for approval
  • approve payments

You will always have the final decision to approve bursary funding in line with your predefined award rules.

We will then draw down the funds from your account by Direct Debit and disburse these to students approved for an award.

We also provide a student helpline that deals with any bursary-related queries your students may have.

Core service

If you prefer to process student financial assistance on your own systems, you can still use BAS for reference. Our core service lets you see the information we hold about student applications.

You can also export core service data and use it in your own IT solutions.

Available information

This is some of the information you can view and use to assess your students for bursaries:

Age Independent reason SLC course code Special Support element
Campus Method of attendance Special Support Grant Qualification
Course year Mode of study Maintenance Grant Credit
Dependents NHS funded Tuition fee Intensity
Domicile First part of postcode Course start month HEI code
Household income Principal earner income Cohort Care leaver

Service cost

The service is free to join, with no minimum annual fee. We will only charge you for the student records you have access to and the approvals you make:

  • application (core service) - £0.50 per student record
  • approval (full service) - £1.75 per student record

If you wish to provide a bursary to EU students, they can submit their household income for consideration. The cost of this service is £7.25 per student record.

We will invoice this in arrears on an annual basis, covering the financial year from March to February. The charges quoted here exclude VAT.

Further information

If you would like further information about the Bursary Administration Service, please speak to your HEP account manager or contact us directly.

We look forward to working with you.

Partners Support Desk

Our Partners Support Desk is the first point of contact for bursary related assistance. 


Email: bursary@slc.co.uk

Telephone: 0300 100 0642



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Related Documents

Bursary Administration Service leaflet

A PDF copy of the information provided on this page.
Dowload: BAS leaflet (PDF 985KB)