Student 2021/22 - Student Support Number
Student 2021/22Fields required from institutions in All fieldsStudent Support Number | return to field list |
Type | field | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
Short name | SSN | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
Description |
This field holds the Student Support Number assigned by Student Support Award Authorities (Northern Ireland Library Boards, Welsh Local Authorities, Student Awards Agency for Scotland (SAAS) and Student Loans Company (SLC)). It is the student identifier that is used in student finance communications between the Student Support Award Authorities, providers and SLC. The SSN is unique to each funded student. | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
Applicable to | England Northern Ireland Scotland Wales | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
Coverage | All providers, all students in receipt of statutory student finance except where Course.COURSEAIM ends in 90 or 99. | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
Notes |
The SSN is 13 characters long. The first four characters are alpha. The next 8 characters are numeric. The last character, which is a check character, is alpha. SSN should be returned where any kind of funds from the SLC are being received by the student e.g maintenance loans, PG loans etc. Where a SSN number is assigned to a student, this should be returned throughout their instance of engagement, regardless of whether the student received any support during the session. We would only expect this value to change under exceptional circumstances, such as when a new SSN has been assigned to a student if they have changed domicile. In which case you would return the latest number. Students in receipt of SLC funding will have both a Student Support Number and a Customer Reference Number allocated by the SLC. The Customer Reference Number (CRN) – also called Art ID – is generated when an application to the SLC for financial support is made, and is held against the student. The SSN is generated when confirmation of support notification is received and this is the number that should be recorded in this field. A student should only have one SSN and one CRN. For information, SSN has an alphanumeric format of XXXX99999999X whereas CRN has a fully numeric format of 99999999999. When a Scottish domiciled student who studies in Scotland and is assigned a number by SAAS, then moves to England and studies in England, their SAAS number is converted to an SSN and therefore this may appear as though the student has two numbers. Calculation of Checksum The algorithm for calculating the checksum is as follows: For positions 1 to 4 of the SSN:
For positions 5 to 12 of the SSN:
Calculate the check character:
Note: characters I, O, Q are not valid characters in the SSN. Z is only valid in position 13. Worked example When the Student Support Number = WADM46891352A
(W=19*13=247), (A=0*12=0), (D=3*11=33), (M=11*10=110)
(4*9=36), (6*8=48), (8*7=56), (9*6=54), (1*5=5), (3*4=12), (5*3=15), (2*2=4) (247+0+33+110+36+48+56+54+5+12+15+4=620) (620/23=26 with a remainder of 22) (23-22=1=A) This is the check character and this matches position 13 of the SSN. | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
Examples |
For example Student Support Number = WADM46891352A | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
Quality rules |
Quality rules to follow
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Reason required | To enable robust linking between HESA data and the student finance data held by SLC in order to reduce data requirements for students where these data can be sourced from the SLC. | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
Part of | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
Field length | 13 | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
Minimum occurrences | 0 | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
Maximum occurrences | 1 | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
Schema components |
Element: SSN
Data type: SSNType | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
Owner | SLC | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
Version | 1.2 | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
Date modified | 2022-02-09 | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
Change management notes | Guidance added to provide clarification around exceptional circumstances for when an SSN number may change. |
Contact Liaison by email or on +44 (0)1242 388 531.