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Student 2016/17 - Fundability code

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Student 2016/17

Fields required from institutions in Northern Ireland

Fundability code


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valid entries
Typefield
Short nameFUNDCODE
Description

This field indicates whether the student is counted as 'fundable', ie. 'eligible for funding' for the course by the appropriate funding council/body. The definition therefore may vary between England, Scotland, Northern Ireland and Wales, in line with their funding methods.

Applicable toEngland Northern Ireland Scotland Wales
Coverage

All instances where Instance.REDUCEDI = 00 or 01, except providers in England where Instance.FESTUMK = 1 or 4.

Valid entries and labels
CodeLabel
1Fundable by funding council
2Not fundable by funding council/body
3Not eligible for funding (as defined for the SFC 'Early Statistics') but is a Continuing Professional Development course (as defined by SFC)
5Funded by the Department of Health (providers in England & NI only)
7Eligible for funding by NCTL
Notes

This field must be coded at the individual student instance level.

Fundable means eligible for funding by the appropriate funding council/body, as defined by that council/body.

This field should be consistent with the year's early student statistics returns to the funding councils.

Eligible students on courses funded by SFA/EFA or WG-DfES should be coded 1 'Fundable by funding council'.

For providers fundable by HEFCE

Students spending more than half of the active study time for the whole instance is spent outside the UK (including through distance learning) should not be coded 1, unless any of the following apply:

  1. There is a clear academic reason for studying abroad rather than in the UK. Even where such a reason exists, HEFCE must specifically sanction the course as eligible.
  2. The student is temporarily and unavoidably abroad and remains liable to UK tax on their earnings, or is a dependant of such a person. This includes members of HM Forces and their dependants.
  3. The student is receiving UK student support from the Student Loans Company for the year.

Undergraduate and postgraduate taught students

To be consistent with the year's early statistics, this field applies to HEFCE–fundable HESES return. It has been confirmed by the funding councils that it is possible for students coded 01-04 (funding councils) in Course.MSFUND to be returned as 2 'Not fundable by funding council/body'. An example of where this is applicable is courses funded through special funding initiatives. For guidance on determining the fundability status of students institutions should refer to the current HESES guidance issued by HEFCE.

In determining whether to code students on higher apprenticeships as code 1 providers should refer to the HEFCE funding rules rather than the SFA funding rules. Students who do not meet the HEFCE funding rules should be coded 2,5, or 7 as appropriate.

The guidance for coding non-fundable students on funded courses should be to code to the appropriate funding council in Course.MSFUND and code as 2 'Not fundable by funding council/body' in this field.

FUNDCODE = 3 applies to providers in Scotland only.

From 2012/13 instances fundable by funding council should be returning under code 1 'Fundable by funding council' irrespective of whether funding was taken up or not. Previously a distinction was made between the two circumstances which is no longer required.

Postgraduate research students

All fundable postgraduate research students should be returned as FUNDCODE = 1. Fundable postgraduate research students are Home and EC students registered at the reporting provider for a research-based higher degree and should be actively supervised by an academic member of staff employed by a higher education provider in England (for HEFCE-funded providers).

Students meeting the above criteria should be recorded as FUNDCODE = 1 despite being recorded as non-fundable on the HESES return.

For providers fundable by DfE(NI)

Undergraduate and postgraduate taught students

To be consistent with the year's early statistics, this field applies to 'eligible for core funding' in the HESES return. It has been confirmed by the funding council that it is possible for students coded 01-04 (funding councils) in Course.MSFUND to be returned as 2 'Not fundable by funding council/body'. An example of where this is applicable is courses funded through special funding initiatives.

The guidance for coding non-fundable students on funded courses should be to code to the appropriate funding council in Course.MSFUND and code as 2 'Not fundable by funding council/body' in this field.

For old regime students (Instance.FEEREGIME = 10) where the major source of funding for the course is DfE(NI), but there is another EU public source funding a certain number of places then this number of places must be shown as non-fundable in this field. In most cases, it is expected that it will be clear from payment of tuition fees which individual student places are being funded from another source and so are not fundable by DfE(NI). For the small number of cases where this is not so, providers shall have the discretion as to which individual students to return as fundable, and which as not fundable, provided that the total student numbers conform to the split between fundable and non-fundable places.

FUNDCODE = 3 applies to providers in Scotland only.

From 2012/13 instances fundable by funding council should be returning under code 1 'Fundable by funding council' irrespective of whether funding was taken up or not. Previously a distinction was made between the two circumstances which is no longer required.

Postgraduate research students

Use of FUNDCODE = 1

All fundable postgraduate research students should be returned as FUNDCODE = 1. Fundable postgraduate research students are Home and EC students registered at the reporting provider for a research-based higher degree and should be actively supervised by an academic member of staff employed by a higher education provider in Northern Ireland.

Students who spend more than half of their active study time for the whole programme outside the UK should be returned as FUNDCODE = 1 only where:

  1. there is a clear academic reason for studying abroad rather than in the UK, for example, where the student’s research is tied to a specific archaeological site, or
  2. the student is temporarily and unavoidably abroad and remains liable to UK tax on their earnings, or is a dependant of such a person. This includes members of HM Forces and their dependants.

Students meeting the above criteria should be recorded as FUNDCODE = 1 despite being recorded as non-fundable on the HESES return.

FUNDCODE = 3 applies to providers in Scotland only.

For providers funded by the SFC

Use of FUNDCODE = 1

To be consistent with the year's early statistics, this field applies to 'eligible for core funding' in the HESES return. It has been confirmed by the funding councils that it is possible for students coded 01-04 (funding councils) in Course.MSFUND to be returned as 2 'Not fundable by funding council/body'. An example of where this is applicable is courses funded through special funding initiatives.

The guidance for coding non-fundable students on funded courses should be to code to the appropriate funding council in Course.MSFUND and code as 2 'Not fundable by funding council/body' in this field.

Providers funded by SFC should note that a particular funding cell may have 100 'fundable' students, but the funding council may provide funding for only 80 student places in that cell. Provided that they satisfy the conditions for being counted in the 'Early Statistics' figures, all 100 students should be identified as eligible for funding: one cannot say which of them were 'fees only' students, as the funding relates to the cell as a whole.

FUNDCODE = 3

Code 3 'Not eligible for funding (as defined for the SFC 'Early Statistics') but is a Continuing Professional Development course (as defined by SFC)' is for use by providers in Scotland only. Where code 3 is applicable it should be used in preference to code 2 'Not fundable by funding council/body'.

For providers fundable by the HEFCW

To be consistent with the year's early statistics, this field applies to 'eligible for core funding' in the HESES return. It has been confirmed by the funding councils that it is possible for students coded 01-04 (funding councils) in Course.MSFUND to be returned as 2 'Not fundable by funding council/body'. An example of where this is applicable is courses funded through special funding initiatives.

The guidance for coding non-fundable students on funded courses should be to code to the appropriate funding council in Course.MSFUND and code as 2 'Not fundable by funding council/body' in this field.

FUNDCODE = 3 applies to providers in Scotland only.

FUNDCODE = 7 is not available for providers in Wales.

For providers fundable by the NCTL

Students should be returned as FUNDCODE = 7 where they are able to access student support i.e. assessed as 'home or EU status' for the purpose of assessing tuition fee status or are home or overseas/international School Direct Salaried trainees on an allocated place and employed in a state maintained school in a priority subject.

Students should be returned as FUNDCODE = 2 where they are assessed as 'overseas or international' for the purpose of assessing tuition fees status, or are School Direct Salaried Trainees (home or overseas) on a non-allocated place or undertaking a lower priority, (non-NCTL-funded) subject and/or employed at a Private School.

For further guidance on funding for 2015/16, please refer to the School Direct funding manual at https://www.gov.uk/government/uploads/system/uploads/attachment_data/file/358290/school-direct-funding-manual-2015-to-2016.pdf or the Training Bursary guide at https://www.gov.uk/government/uploads/system/uploads/attachment_data/file/358506/training-bursary-guide-2015-to-2016.pdf.

For ITT funding rates and priority subjects please refer to the detailed guidance at https://www.gov.uk/funding-initial-teacher-training-itt-academic-year-2015-to-16.

Further guidance on the coding requirements for NCTL students may be found in the 'Further guidance about returning NCTL programmes (excluding EYITT)' document.

Further guidance on the coding requirements for those on Early Years Initial Teacher Training (EYITT) programmes may be found in the 'Further guidance about Early Years Initial Teacher Training (EYITT) programmes' document.

Examples

A non-EU overseas student is an example of a particular student who is not eligible for funding, even if the course that they are following has funding for student places.

Please refer any queries about whether or not students on a particular course or students of a particular type are eligible for funding to the appropriate funding council/body rather than to HESA.

Quality rules
Quality rules to follow
Reason required

To determine funding eligibility for individual students based on their personal and course characteristics. Used in particular to assess accuracy of early returns (Early Statistics) and inform eligibility for funding allocations and analyses.

Part of
Field length1
Minimum occurrences0
Maximum occurrences1
Schema components
Element: FUNDCODE
OwnerHESA
Version1.2
Date modified2016-10-27
Change management notesThe guidance in the Notes section has been revised to add in a sentence to the end of the PGR guidance for England which relates to alignment with HESES.

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