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.

All instances where Instance.REDUCEDI = 00 or 01

This field must be returned 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.

For providers in England, eligible students on courses funded by the ESFA should be returned as valid entry 1.

For providers fundable by Office for Students and Research England

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 returned 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, Office for Students and Research England 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 Office for Students and Research England–fundable HESES return. It has been confirmed by the funding councils that it is possible for students returned 01-04 (funding councils) in Course.MSFUND to be returned as valid entry 2. 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 Office for Students and Research England.

In determining whether to return students on higher apprenticeships as valid entry 1 providers should refer to the Office for Students and Research England funding rules rather than the Education and Skills Funding Agency (ESFA) funding rules. Students who do not meet the Office for Students and Research England funding rules should be returned 2, 5, or 7 as appropriate.

The guidance for returning non-fundable students on funded courses should be to use the appropriate funding council in Course.MSFUND and valid entry 2 in this field.

FUNDCODE = 3 applies to providers in Scotland only.

From 2012/13 instances fundable by funding council should be returning under valid entry 1 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 students eligible to pay home fees and 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 (Approved (Fee Cap) providers).

Students meeting the above criteria should be recorded as FUNDCODE = 1 despite being recorded as non-fundable on the HESES return. This is to allow identification by Research England for funding and planning purposes.

Postgraduate writing up students

For postgraduate students who are writing up, the FUNDCODE status should be maintained the same as in previous years when they were actively studying. If the student was fundable before they went to writing up then they should be returned as such and if they were non-fundable this would be returned.

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 returned 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 returning non-fundable students on funded courses should be to use the appropriate funding council in Course.MSFUND and valid entry 2 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 valid entry 1 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 students eligible to pay home fees and 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. This will apply mainly to NI and ROI domiciled students, but there may be a few exceptions relating to certain EU students with 'protected rights' or niche categories in the student support legislation.

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 HESES/Early Statistics return, this field applies to 'eligible for core funding' in the HESES/Early Statistics return. It has been confirmed by the funding councils/funding bodies that it is possible for students returned 01-04 (funding councils) in Course.MSFUND to be returned as 2 'Not fundable by funding council/body'. An example of this is where a student paying the overseas tuition fee rate is on a course that is eligible for support from the funding council/body.

The guidance for returning non-fundable students on funded courses should be to use the appropriate funding council in Course.MSFUND and valid entry 2 in this field.

FUNDCODE = 3

Valid entry 3 is for use by providers in Scotland only. Where valid entry 3 is applicable it should be used in preference to valid entry 2.

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 returned 01-04 (funding councils) in Course.MSFUND to be returned as valid entry 2. An example of where this is applicable is courses funded through special funding initiatives.

The guidance for returning non-fundable students on funded courses should be to use the appropriate funding council in Course.MSFUND and valid entry 2 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 DfE

Students should be returned as FUNDCODE = 7 where they are able to access student support i.e. assessed as 'home or settled or pre-settled status under the EU Settlement Scheme' 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-DfE-funded) subject and/or employed at a Private School.

For further guidance on funding, please refer to the School Direct funding manual at https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/school-direct-salaried-funding-manual or the Training Bursary guide at https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/initial-teacher-training-itt-bursary-funding-manual.

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

Further guidance on the coding requirements for DfE students may be found in the 'Further guidance about returning DfE 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.

Postgraduate Teaching Apprenticeships: Where the ITT qualification aspect of the apprenticeship is funded by the DfE, valid entry 7 (Eligible for funding by DfE) should be returned.

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.