Designation

This is a mandatory field for all courses.

It lets you select the countries of students your course should be available to:

England
Wales
Scotland
Northern Ireland

Only students from the domiciles you've selected on CMS can view and apply for that course in our Customer Portal.

When you add courses, you'll only be able to select the domiciles your university or college has been designated for. You can find out more in the Designation chapter of this guide.

English providers

Approved (fee cap) providers

If you're registered with the Office for Students (OfS) in the Approved (fee cap) category, you'll have your designation status automatically added for all domiciles. CMS will default to designate your courses in all domiciles. However, you can change this at course level if you have courses only for students from a specific country.

Approved providers

If you're registered with OfS in the Approved category, you'll have automatic designation for English students only. If you need designation for students from Scotland, Wales or Northern Ireland, you must be specifically designated by the appropriate domicile. Only then can eligible students access student support.

Alternative Providers in academic year 2018/19

If you were an Alternative Provider in academic year 2018/19, you must have your courses specifically designated for Scottish students to access student support. This applies regardless of which category you're now registered in with OfS.

Scottish and Northern Irish providers

Authority-funded providers

Authority-funded providers (often called public providers) are maintained or assisted by recurrent grants out of public funds.

If you're an authority-funded provider, you're automatically designated for all domiciles. CMS will default to designate your courses as such.

You can change this at course level if you have courses only for students from a specific country.

Alternative providers

An Alternative Provider is a provider that:

is not maintained or assisted by recurrent grants out of public funds
does not receive any other form of direct annual public funding (for example, from a local authority or the Secretary of State for Education)
is not a further education college

Courses provided wholly or in part by an Alternative Provider fall outside the scope of any automatic designation under the regulations.

These courses need to be specifically designated so eligible students may access student support.

Welsh providers

From 1 August 2017, the automatic designation of full-time higher education courses applies only to courses provided by 'recognised educational institutions'.

A 'recognised educational institution' is defined as any of the following:

a Welsh-regulated institution, meaning an institution which has a fee and access plan approved by the Higher Education Funding Council for Wales (HEFCW) under Section 7 of the Higher Education (Wales) Act 2015 while that plan remains in force
an English-regulated institution, that is an institution maintained or assisted by recurrent grants from OfS
an institution in Scotland or Northern Ireland that is maintained or assisted by recurrent grants out of public funds

If a higher education course is not automatically designated, HEFCW will need to specifically designate the course before students can apply for financial support from the Welsh Government.

Postgraduate master’s

You should select the countries of students you want your course to be available to. Only students from the domiciles you've selected on CMS can view and apply for that course in our Customer Portal.

Students from England, Wales and the EU

From academic year 2017/18 English, Welsh and EU students are eligible to apply for Postgraduate Master’s Loans. If you add a course with postgraduate master’s funding level now, the domicile designation defaults to England and Wales only. You can deselect either England or Wales but you cannot add any further domiciles. Once you save a course, you will not be able to add or remove domiciles.

Students from Northern Ireland

From academic year 2017/18 Northern Ireland-domiciled students are eligible to apply for the Northern Ireland Postgraduate Tuition Fee Loan. You can set up postgraduate courses on CMS specifically for Northern Irish students. These courses default to the Northern Ireland domicile only.

Students from Scotland

From academic year 2020/21 you can set up Scottish postgraduate courses in CMS specifically for Scottish students. These courses default to Scotland only.

Postgraduate doctoral

Postgraduate Doctoral Loans are only available from Student Finance England (SFE) and Student Finance Wales (SFW) for courses offered by UK providers with research degree awarding powers. Only providers that have been granted research degree awarding powers can award doctoral degrees.

There are instances where a provider without research degree awarding powers (Provider A) may enter a validation arrangement with a provider with these powers (Provider B). In these instances, Provider B approves a programme of study offered by Provider A. This contributes to the award of a doctoral qualification from Provider B.

In validation arrangements like these, the degree awarding body (Provider B) is ultimately responsible for:

the academic standards of any awards granted in its name
the quality of the learning programme

If your doctoral courses are validated by a provider with research degree awarding powers, please contact your HEP Account Manager or email our Partners Support Desk to find out if your courses are eligible and how to add them to CMS.

From academic year 2018/19 English and Welsh students can apply for a Postgraduate Doctoral Loan. When you add a course with postgraduate doctorate funding level, the domicile designation defaults to England and Wales only. You can deselect either England or Wales but you cannot add any further domiciles. Once you save the course there is no option to add or remove domiciles.

Only students whose domiciles you've selected on CMS can view and apply for that course in our Customer Portal.