This chapter tells you how to create a part-time undergraduate course.

It covers everything you'll need to know before you start adding these courses to CMS, including:

• eligibility
• academic years
• term dates
• course duration
• fees
• course credits and intensity

Scottish-designated part-time courses

The Student Awards Agency Scotland (SAAS) has confirmed you do not need to upload part-time courses that are designated for Scottish students.

When you create your courses, you should ensure that Scottish designation is not selected. You do not need to roll over courses that only have Scottish designation.

To qualify for part-time fee and maintenance support, the student must undertake a designated part-time course. They must also be studying at a course intensity of at least 25% to get a Maintenance Loan or a Tuition Fee Loan.

A designated part-time course must:

• have a duration of at least one academic year
• be ordinarily possible to complete in no more than 4 times the period it would take to complete the full-time equivalent where the course begins on or after 1 September 2012

You can find more detailed information on course eligibility in the guidance chapters on the Student Finance England practitioners’ website.

The regulations define the academic year as a 12-month period beginning on either 1 September, 1 January, 1 April or 1 July. The date depends on when the course started.

This means that the maximum funding we can award to a student starting in September or October, for example, covers the academic year from 1 September until 31 August the following year. This applies to Tuition Fee Loans, Maintenance Grants and loans for living costs.

If a course runs beyond the end of the academic year, students will not be funded for the period between the end of the academic year and the end of the last term.

Term dates let us determine when to pay your students. This depends on how long they're 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.

It's important you submit an accurate course duration as this affects the funding entitlement of your students.

For part-time undergraduate courses you must enter the 'full-time equivalent' (FTE) duration of the part-time course you're submitting. You must not enter the duration of the part-time course itself.

If you do not have a full-time version of the course, you must enter the duration that the full-time course would be if there were one. For example, a degree is ordinarily completed within 3 years when studied full time. Therefore, where you have a part-time degree course but no full-time version, you should add your part-time course as 3 years FTE.

When you enter a part-time undergraduate course, you can choose a duration of 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7 or 8 years full-time equivalent:

• part-time courses with a duration of 1 year FTE – can be studied up to 4 years
• part-time courses with a duration of 2 years FTE – can be studied up to 8 years
• part-time courses with a duration of 3 years FTE – can be studied up to 12 years
• part-time courses with a duration of 4 years FTE – can be studied up to 16 years
• part-time courses with a duration of 5 years FTE – can be studied up to 16 years
• part-time courses with a duration of 6 years FTE – can be studied up to 16 years
• part-time courses with a duration of 7 years FTE – can be studied up to 16 years
• part-time courses with a duration of 8 years FTE – can be studied up to 16 years

You must make sure your students are aware of the actual duration of the part-time course they'll be attending.

For part-time courses, you must enter the number of credits students will gain when they complete the entire course. This will let us accurately assess their eligibility for Part-time Maintenance Loan funding.

You must not enter the number of credits students get in an individual academic year.

For example, when you upload a 3 year honours degree, please enter 360 credits. This is the total course credits a student would receive for their entire course. You will find a table with examples of common course credits and their corresponding course durations on the Common credits for a full course page.

A common error is attributing no credit value to foundation or placement years. Integral foundation, study abroad and work placement years are not a requirement to receive the honours degree. We understand that they do not traditionally have a credit value attached because of this. However, we need one to accurately assess the student’s support entitlement.

You should add an additional standard year's worth of credits to the course in this case.

Some English providers offer courses delivered by the Scottish Qualifications Authority (SQA). If this applies to you, then from academic year 2022/23 you can choose an Advanced Diploma or Advanced Certificate qualification. You must use this for courses that previously had a qualification of Higher National Diploma (HND) or Higher National Certificate (HNC).

You must start phasing out the courses with the incorrect qualification from academic year 2022/23. You can use the Available course years option to do this. You should create new versions of the courses with the correct qualification for new students.

Students domiciled in Northern Ireland are not eligible for funding for Graduate Diploma courses. You must not add these courses to CMS with Northern Irish designation.

From academic year 2023/24, Higher Technical Qualifications (HTQs) are eligible for student finance support.

These are level 4 or 5 qualifications approved by the Institute for Apprenticeships and Technical Education (IFATE).

An eligible course must be:

• IFATE approved
• level 4 or 5
• at least one academic year in duration
• provided by or in conjunction with an Office for Students-registered provider in England
• offered by an awarding body with degree awarding powers (or foundation degree awarding powers, where applicable)

You should mark courses that meet the eligibility criteria as HTQ courses on CMS.

Creating a new part-time HTQ course on CMS

To create an HTQ course, go to the Courses tab and select Add a course. Enter all the course details and select the Higher Technical Qualification attribute. Please note that you can only add the attribute at the point of course creation and you cannot add it later.

You can do this from academic year 2023/24.

English students may be entitled to Part-Time Maintenance Loans for these courses. You must add the HTQ attribute so we can correctly assess them.

You can add these courses with additional domiciles if you need to. However, only English students may be entitled to Part-Time Maintenance Loans for HTQs.

The Student Awards Agency Scotland (SAAS) does not need part-time courses saved on CMS. You should not include Scotland as a domicile.

Students from Wales can already qualify for part-time maintenance support from Student Finance Wales. This is based on a course’s underlying higher education qualification type, such as HND or HNC. This is not a change to existing eligibility criteria.

Students from Wales cannot qualify for any form of higher education finance if they're undertaking an HTQ course with an underlying further education qualification, such as a Level 4 Diploma. This also applies to Part-Time Maintenance Loans.

Only new students should apply for new courses you create with the HTQ attribute. There is guidance on what to do for returning students on existing courses you had on CMS before they gained HTQ approval.

This is a new qualification for Northern Irish students from academic year 2023/24. The qualification is: OCN Level 5 Extended Diploma in Hair and Beauty Management. This replaces the existing Pearson HND in Hair and Beauty Management.

We've added a new OCN Level 5 Extended Diploma qualification option to CMS. You must select this option when you add the course.

You should only be using this qualification if:

• you're a Northern Irish provider
• you're using it for the designated OCN Level 5 Extended Diploma Hair and Beauty Management course

You must only add this course for Northern Irish students.

The course should only be added for new students from academic year 2023/24 onwards.

You must not use this qualification option on CMS for any other course.