Financial Support

Instances at institutions in England where (Instance.REDUCEDI = 00 or 01) and Instance.FEEELIG = 1 and (Instance.FUNDCODE = 1 or 7) and (Course.COURSEAIM begins with H, I, J, C or is M22, M26, M28, M71 or M88, excluding H50, H60, H61, H62, H78, H81, I60, I61 or I81) and (Instance.EXCHANGE is not 4, G or Z).

Must be completed for all instances of Home and EU, HEFCE / NCTL fundable students in receipt of financial support. Only financial support relating to the HESA reporting year should be returned (which is the same for both standard and non-standard year students). If a student does not receive any financial support in the HESA reporting year, this entity should not be returned. If the student receives an award retrospectively, post-course completion or during a period of dormancy then it should be returned within the HESA reporting year to which it relates. Financial support should not be reported during periods of dormancy.

Only financial support provided in relation to the student's programme of study should be included. If all students on a particular course are given the same in-kind award, and there is no differentiation based on individual circumstance, it is considered this a cost that is built into the course fee, and should therefore be excluded. Forms of support that are available to all students (even if not utilised by all) and are not awarded differentially based on individual circumstance should not be included in the Financial Support entity.

If all students on a particular course are given the same in-kind award, and there is no differentiation based on individual circumstance, this is considered to be a cost that is built into the course fee, and should therefore be excluded. For example, all students are able to attend a field trip as part of a geography course. The travel costs for all students on the course are paid for by the institution however only half of the class elect to participate in the field trip. The cost of travel would not be included as financial support because it is available to all of the students.

Examples of financial support

Include:

• Merit based bursaries and awards, including prizes
• Bursaries and scholarships awarded to assist the student with maintenance costs rather than tuition fees
• Costs for subsidised travel or meals (if available only to a subset of students)
• Any amounts awarded through ITT bursaries
• Amounts awarded through The National Scholarship Programme (NSP), where these awards are offered as bursaries/scholarships or discounted accommodation,
• Awards paid through charitable funds secured by institutions

Exclude:

• Refunds or compensation issued to students in relation to the course or accommodation
• Support given in relation to student societies or additional courses taken by the student
• Disabled Students’ Allowance (DSA) awards
• Access to Learning Funds (ALF)
• Incentives given to students to encourage participation in surveys and focus groups
• Any discounts for Oxbridge college fees.
• Welcome packs provided to all students on enrolment of the course
• Course materials provided or available to all students on the course
• The cost of inoculations, CRB checks or other costs covered by the institution in relation to the course if available to all students
• Fee waivers

Loans of equipment are not required to be reported in the Student record due to the complexities surrounding the capture of this information but are included in aggregate form in the return made to OFFA by the institution. Institutions choosing to return this information in the 2013/14 Student record should declare this to HESA during the quality assurance process.

Each FinancialSupport.FINTYPE and FinancialSupport.FINAMOUNT pair should be returned once per applicable FinancialSupport.FINTYPE. Where the student is in receipt of multiple forms of a FinancialSupport.FINTYPE (e,g, two forms of a cash support) these amounts should be summed and returned under a single occurrence of the appropriate FinancialSupport.FINTYPE.

If a particular FinancialSupport.FINTYPE is not received by the student, the FinancialSupport.FINTYPE and associated FinancialSupport.FINAMOUNT need not be returned, i.e. there is no need to return a null or zero FinancialSupport.FINAMOUNT for FinancialSupport.FINTYPEs the student is not in receipt of. The schema will prevent this.

Financial support given to students included in the coverage of the Financial Support entity which is £10 or less per item within each FinancialSupport.FINTYPE category must not be included. Amounts of more than £10 per item should be included.

To capture financial support received by all students for OFFA purposes.

This data will be used to understand the role that bursaries and other in-kind support play in determining the choice of where students study and the impact this has on their likelihood of continuing studies. OFFA needs to understand the nature of support given to all students, including both advantaged and disadvantaged. This will allow OFFA to robustly monitor institutions' commitments in Access agreements with regard to the amount of financial support set out in their Access agreements.

This data will also allow OFFA to undertake more powerful analysis, the results of which will be fed back to institutions to help better understand the use of funds and where these may be more effectively targeted. Collecting this data will allow OFFA to monitor continuously and evaluate the role that this financial support plays throughout the sector.

OFFA, along with the Student Opportunity team at HEFCE, have been charged by Government to develop a shared strategy built on evidence from the sector. This field is necessary to provide an evidence base for this strategy and is crucial to OFFA's operation.