Version 0.1 - Last Updated: 31 Jan 2023

Registration confirmation

What else does registration confirm?


When you submit a registration confirmation, you're telling us you're confident the student has registered for the coming session. For some loan products, a registration also confirms some further information. This chapter will explain what this is depending on the product.


Undergraduate Part-Time Maintenance Loan

When students apply for Student Finance England (SFE) or Student Finance Wales (SFW) Part-Time Maintenance Loans, they tell us how many credits they'll be studying in the academic year. We need you to confirm if the credit value they have given us on their application is correct. This will be part of the registration confirmation and is only mandatory for Part-Time Maintenance Loan students.

You'll see this credit value in the registration worklist on SIS. It will also appear on the Course Information tab under Detailed Student Information.

The Credit field will also be included in file exports:

  • the extended student information file
  • the summary student registration information file
  • the registration confirmation import

You can also tell us about earlier or later credit changes using the Credit CoC.

If you disagree with the credit value on SIS, you can amend it for the relevant academic year. This will automatically raise a CoC to change the credit value. We'll process the CoC and complete a reassessment. Once this is done, the student will reappear on your registration worklist for confirmation.

You can find more information on how to confirm or amend credit values in the Registration Worklist chapter.


Postgraduate Master’s and Doctoral Loans

The Department for Education (DfE) requires a confirmation of study before releasing payments. For this, we use registration confirmations as they trigger payments directly to students.

For postgraduate doctoral students, registration also confirms that the student:

  • is in study
  • is on an eligible full doctoral course
  • is studying at least 50% of the full course in the UK
  • is on track to finish within the duration of their course
  • is not or will not be in receipt of Research Council funding, made by United Kingdom Research and Innovation (UKRI)
  • is not or will not be in receipt of Knowledge Economy Skills Scholarships (KESS 2) funding (Welsh providers only)

Students who have applied for UKRI or KESS 2 funding and are waiting to hear if they've been successful should not apply to us for the Postgraduate Doctoral Loan. If the student receives confirmation that they'll not receive funding from UKRI or KESS 2, they can apply for funding from us. Students who intend to apply for UKRI or KESS 2 funding later in their course should also not apply for doctoral funding from us.

For postgraduate master's students, registration also confirms that the student:

  • is in study
  • is meeting the minimum study intensity requirements if studying part time
  • is on track to complete the course within the current course duration
  • is studying at least 50% of the full course in the UK

Part-time courses should be no more than twice the length of their one or two-year full-time equivalent if you have one. If you have no full-time equivalent course, the part-time course should be no more than 3 academic years.


What should we do if a postgraduate student does not meet criteria?

The student is not in study

If students are taking a temporary break from their studies, you should process them as suspended. You can use the Suspension CoC in SIS to do this. If the student has not attended after the start of the academic year, and has not told you about circumstances such as a suspension, you should submit a Not Registered (N) code

The student is not progressing

If the student is not progressing and is unlikely to complete in the duration of their course, you can transfer them to a longer course. You can only do this if there is no repetition of study.

The longer course must fit the eligibility criteria for the student finance product.

For example, let’s say you have a student on a 3-year postgraduate doctoral course. At the start of year 3 it is evident that they will not complete at the end of the year. You can transfer this student onto a course with a longer duration to match their progression. In this case, this will be a 4-year course or longer.

This will not work if the student is already on an 8-year course. Only courses up to 8 years in length are eligible for doctoral funding. If, at the start of year 8, it becomes evident that the student will not complete that year, you cannot transfer them to a longer course.

If the student does not meet the above criteria and you cannot transfer them, you should not submit a registration confirmation. Instead, you should email us at hep_referrals@slc.co.uk. Please provide the following information in your email:

  • subject line 'PGD registration'
  • the student's name
  • the student's Customer Reference Number (CRN)
  • the student's Student Support Number (SSN)
  • the academic year
  • the reason why the student does not meet the registration criteria
  • your HEP code
  • your full name
  • the email address registered under SIS contacts if you're sending the message from another email address

Sometimes a student starts a doctoral course with funding from us, but their circumstances change in a way that opens a route to UKRI or KESS 2 funding. In these cases, the student will become ineligible for our funding from the date they're in receipt of the alternative funding.

You should not use the Withdrawal CoC when this happens, as the student is still in study and the CoC would be inaccurate. Instead, you should email us at hep_referrals@slc.co.uk. Please provide the following information in your email:

  • subject line 'PGD UKRI funding' or 'PGD KESS funding'
  • the student’s name
  • the student’s CRN
  • the student’s SSN
  • the academic year
  • the date from which the student was or will be in receipt of the UKRI or KESS funding
  • your HEP code
  • your full name
  • the email address registered under SIS contacts if you're sending the message from another email address

Student prisoners

You must submit registration confirmations for prisoners who are in receipt of postgraduate funding. We'll then make payment directly to you, with the bank details you provided for fee payments.

If a prisoner is given parole or released, we'll pay any remaining funding to the student.