Version 1.0 - Last Updated: 25 Oct 2023
Creating a full-time undergraduate course
Term dates
Term dates let us determine when and how much to pay your students. This depends on how long they are studying with you that year.
It is important that the number of teaching weeks you enter on CMS is accurate. Teaching weeks are weeks when your students are attending lectures, doing course work or taking exams.
You can enter different term dates for each year of a course within the same academic year. For example, if year 3 students have a shorter study period as it’s their final year, you can deselect the Use these dates for all years checkbox. This will expand the selection and let you enter individual term dates for each year.
Term start dates
Your term dates should be linked to the season your course begins.
There are restrictions to how early a term can begin. This is to make sure students’ payments are spread out throughout the academic year.
Academic year start: Autumn (August to December)
Term 1 start no earlier than 1 August
Term 2 start no earlier than 1 January
Term 3 start no earlier than 1 April
Academic year start: Winter (January to March)
Term 1 start no earlier than 1 January
Term 2 start no earlier than 1 April
Term 3 start no earlier than 1 July
Academic year start: Spring (April to June)
Term 1 start no earlier than 1 April
Term 2 start no earlier than 1 July
Term 3 start no earlier than 1 January
Academic year start: Summer (July)
Term 1 start no earlier than 1 July
Term 2 start no earlier than 1 January
Term 3 start no earlier than 1 April
We will not make payments to students beyond the end of the academic year of study. If a student starts a course on 12 October 2022 and ends on 8 October 2023, we'll pay any funding due within the academic year in which the course starts. In this case, we'll complete payments by 31 August.
You can compress the term dates in the final course year into the remaining period of attendance.
If a bank holiday falls at the beginning of April, the term 3 start date must be no earlier than 3 April. Our system schedules payments before the bank holiday, so even if a term 3 start date falls on 1 or 2 April, the payments will need to be processed in March.
This also applies to January start dates which can be affected by the New Year bank holiday. Please take care to enter term dates after this bank holiday if students are not in attendance.
If you enter a term start or end date that's on a weekend, the system will ask you to confirm this is correct before it lets you save the course.
Course duration
You can select a full-time undergraduate course with a duration of between 1 and 8 years.
You also have the option to indicate if the course has a foundation year.
Freshers and exam weeks
Freshers
Attendance on a course includes students engaging with learning activities such as scheduled lectures or faculty inductions. Term dates should not include freshers' activities or social events before the start of attendance.
Please contact your HEP Account Manager if if you have questions on what to include in your term dates.
Exam weeks
You should include exam periods in your term dates, as they count towards your overall teaching weeks. Do not include periods where students are waiting for their results or resitting exams.
Holiday periods
You must account for holiday periods when you enter term dates. Do not include them within any term dates.
For example, if a student started their course in October, the term dates would exclude the Christmas and Easter holiday periods. If a student starts their course in January, the term dates must exclude Easter and Summer holiday periods.
In CMS we only need the start date and end date of each term. You must remove a week from your term length if you have a midterm holiday.
Semesters or terms?
Many universities and colleges operate on 2 semesters, rather than 3 separate terms.
We pay students at 3 points throughout their academic year, so we still need to maintain the 3 terms in our systems.
If you use semesters, you must create term dates that reflect your students’ study pattern as closely as possible. You could use any holiday periods in the second semester as a natural break for your terms.
You must make sure that your term start dates reflect when your students are in study. This will make sure your students get paid at the right time.
Example 1
Semester 1 begins: Monday 11 September 2023
Semester 1 ends: Friday 19 January 2024
Winter break: Monday 18 December 2023 to Monday 1 January 2024
Semester 2 begins: Monday 22 January 2024
Semester 2 ends: Friday 31 May 2024
Easter break: Monday 1 April 2024 to Friday 12 April 2024
You could split these using holiday periods as breaks between terms:
Term 1 - 11 September 2023 to 15 December 2023
Term 2 - 2 January 2024 to 29 March 2024
Term 3 - 15 April 2023 to 2 June 2023
Example 2
Semester 1 begins: Tuesday 2 January 2024
Semester 1 ends: Friday 10 May 2024
Easter break: Monday 1 April 2024 to Friday 12 April 2024
Semester 2 begins: Monday 13 May 2024
Semester 2 ends: Friday 27 September 2024
Summer break: Monday 1 July to Friday 12 July
You could split these using holiday periods as breaks between terms:
Term 1 - 2 January 2024 to 29 March 2024
Term 2 - 15 April 2024 to 28 June 2024
Term 3 - 15 July 2024 to 27 September 2024
Long courses
Any course with term dates over 30 weeks and 3 days is classed as long course.
The length of your course could entitle some students to more maintenance support. CMS will tell you when you enter term dates that exceed 30 weeks and 3 days and ask you to confirm that these are correct.
If the long course status changes from one academic year to the next, you should check that your term dates are correct. Sometimes, this can show that term dates are wrong.
If a course is longer than 45 weeks, this could entitle students to the maximum amount of Long Course Loan.