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.