Scottish and Northern Irish 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.

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.