Creating a Postgraduate Healthcare course

There are different funding packages available for Postgraduate Healthcare courses depending on each student's domicile. This means different versions of these courses are required if you wish to offer them to students of all domiciles.

Below is a guide to setting up this type of course so each of your students can access the correct funding they are entitled to.

English Domiciled Students

From academic year 2018/19 the Department of Health does not fund tuition fees through Health Education England or bursaries through NHS BSA to new students on postgraduate healthcare courses in England.

Instead, English-domiciled students new to a postgraduate healthcare course from academic year 2018/19 will be eligible for the standard undergraduate package of support.

To be eligible for this, postgraduate healthcare courses must meet the following criteria:

• a designated pre-registration course in allied health profession subjects, nursing or midwifery (see list of courses below)
• a level 7 postgraduate master’s or postgraduate diploma
• full-time
• not distance learning
• at least 2 academic years

Eligible courses are those leading to professional registration in:

• chiropody
• dental hygiene
• dental therapy
• dietetics and nutrition
• nursing – diplomas and degrees (including courses to convert from second to first level registration)
• midwifery – diplomas and degrees
• occupational therapy
• operating department practice – diplomas and degrees
• orthoptics
• physiotherapy
• podiatry
• prosthetics and orthotics
• radiography
• radiotherapy
• speech and language therapy

From academic year 2018/19 you should enter an undergraduate course for English students. This will allow them to access the undergraduate package.

Set the qualification on the undergraduate courses to Postgraduate Healthcare. Once you select this qualification, you can only check the English domicile in the Designation section. This ensures that only English-domiciled students can select these courses. They will not be available to Scottish, Welsh or Northern Irish students.

You should fill all other fields as normal for these undergraduate courses.

If your postgraduate healthcare course does not meet the eligibility criteria noted, you should enter it as a postgraduate master's course.

Northern Irish, Scottish and Welsh Domiciled Students

For Scottish, Welsh and Northern Irish-domiciled students, you should enter a postgraduate course. Do this as you normally would and select the relevant qualifications. This will give the students access to the appropriate postgraduate loan.