Courses Management Service Supporting guidance for Higher Education Providers

Transcription

1 Courses Management Service Supporting guidance for Higher Education Providers Courses Management Service 1 Student Loans Company Ltd

2 CONTENTS Section 1 Definitions and related documents....3 Section 2 Introduction Accessing the Courses Management Service...5 Section 3 You As A Provider... 6 Provider Details Provider Fee Cap... 6 Designation By Domicile... 6 Locations... 6 Section 4 Entering Your Courses... 7 Updating Course Details for a New Academic Year Creating A New Course..7 Postgraduate Courses....7 Course Name... 8 Course Qualification... 9 HEP Code Duration Foundation Years Subject Category Designation Fees Course Credits 13 Course Attributes.14 Entering Term Dates on CMS Edit Course...17 Search Course...18 Export Courses...18 Term Date Guidance Long Courses Available Course Years.20 Section 5 Further Guidance...21 Initial Teacher Training & School Direct Course Designation Compressed / Shortened / Repeating / Multi Academic Year Courses Study Abroad..26 Scottish Postgraduate Courses 27 DSA Post Graduate Courses...27 Courses Management Service 2 Student Loans Company Ltd

3 Section 1 Definitions and related documents DEFINITIONS Term DfE Characters CoC CMS DELNI DET Distance Learning Domicile Education Authority (EA) Field FT Gateway HEFCE HEFCW HEP Intercalated Course NHS Bursary OFFA Placement PT QTS SCITT SFE SIS SLC TFL UCAS UKPRN VTF SCITT Definition Department for Education The number of letters contained in a field value Change of Circumstance Courses Management Service Department of Employment & Learning Northern Ireland Diploma in Education & Training Also referred to as flexible or open learning, this is a programme of study that allows students to study at home, away from their provider s campus The country the student treat as their permanent home and from which they apply for funding Replaced the Education Library Board (Northern Ireland) Components of information in a record, e.g. college address lines such as street name, postcode, etc Full Time course / student Portal access for each HEP Higher Education Funding Council for England Higher Education Funding Council for Wales Higher Education Provider A course that is not higher than first degree level that can lead to more than one qualification and be considered a single course. These are medical, dental and veterinary science courses which include an intercalated first degree (i.e. a BSc) Income assessed bursary or healthcare awards from the Department of Health due to their chosen course of study Office for Fair Access A period of relevant, supervised work experience or study at a provider in the UK or abroad, which is assessed as part of a student s programme of study (can be compulsory or optional) Part Time course / student Qualified Teacher Status School Centre for Initial Teacher Training Student Finance England Student Information Service Student Loans Company Tuition Fee Loans Universities and Colleges Admission Services UK Provider Reference Number Variable Tuition Fees School Centred Initial Teacher Training All supporting material for the Courses management Service can be found on the Courses Management Service page of the HEP Services website: Courses Management Service 3 Student Loans Company Ltd

4 Section 2 Introduction The Student Loans Company s Courses Management Service (CMS), accessible via the HE Portal, is a directory of Higher Education Providers and their full and part time course information for both undergraduate and postgraduate courses. CMS is utilised by SLC s student finance application systems to enable accurate assessments and assist timely payments of support. CMS is a single, flexible, controlled service that supports a single repository of provider and HE course data which holds accurate course information that has been subjected to strong designation, security and anti-fraud measures. The key design principles held by SLC for the Courses Management Service are to ensure: A single point of entry for provider and course information Students should be able to easily find their course when they apply A student is not made eligible for support unless the course they are on or plan to attend is designated. It is the responsibility of HEPs to ensure that the course details held by SLC for all of their full and part time undergraduate and postgraduate courses are correct. This will ensure that students are assessed against the correct course details and that, where applicable, fee payments issued to providers are accurate. Note The accuracy of course information held within the service is critical as it is used for many purposes: It allows SLC: - To correctly assess student funding applications - To ensure that payments are accurate, paid on time and to the right location It will allow you: - To maintain and manage a centralised log of your course and fee information We will ask you annually to: Provide term dates and fee information for existing full and part time undergraduate and postgraduate courses Provide any new full or part time course information as the AY progresses If you have any operational queries with regards to the Courses Management Service, the Partner Services Support Desk can be contacted via the details below. TELEPHONE: HEP_Services@slc.co.uk Courses Management Service 4 Student Loans Company Ltd

5 ACCESSING THE COURSES MANAGEMENT SERVICE The HEP Services website hosts the link to the HE Portal. The website can be accessed via the following link: You can access the HE Portal Gateway using your current username, password and secret answer. It is your responsibility to ensure that these login details are not disclosed to anyone else. On successful login you will see a link to the Courses Management Service in the side menu bar of the HE Gateway homepage. Each individual user should hold unique access details, as sharing user access is not permitted. It will be up to the HEP Courses User Administrator to determine what system role(s) will be allocated to each member of staff. If you do not have access to CMS, your Courses User Administrator will be able to create a user account for you. On accessing the CMS link, we will ask you to enter your username and password again as a secondary security check. This will allow us to validate you in the service. Once you have logged into CMS, the timeout on the screen is 1 hour if there has been no activity (with an 8 hour maximum session) before we ask you to re-enter your access details. There is no restriction on the number of users that can be set up with access to the Courses Management Service; this is entirely at your discretion. The user access levels are as follows: Course Advisor read only access to view the provider and course information in CMS Course Administrator administrative access to add locations and course information in CMS Course User Administrator access to set up or expire any number of other users with access to CMS Users within Alternative Providers will all have read only access only by default. Courses Management Service 5 Student Loans Company Ltd

6 Section 3 You as a provider PROVIDER DETAILS We ve input all your provider details and AY specific information for you. As it s key that this information is correct, we would ask you to check these on first logging into CMS. You are unable to edit these details yourself, however if you notice any of this information is incorrect please contact us a HEP_Services@slc.co.uk PROVIDER FEE CAP The provider Fee Cap will be pre-populated depending on your domicile and will equal the maximum amount stated by OFFA, HEFCW, DEL & SAAS. If you do not have an access agreement you will see the field contains the maximum public / private fee rate. This cap is set for both full and part time courses. When entering fee information at course level you will not be able to enter a fee rate for a course higher than the fee cap pre-populated in the provider details. PROVIDER COURSE DESIGNATION BY DOMICILE This section will show you which domicile you have courses designated for. For more information on designation please refer to Section 5 LOCATIONS [MANDATORY] Courses can be assigned to any location created for your provider within the locations tab. If a course is being offered at two or more separate locations this can be reflected under one entry on CMS. Within CMS there are three location types: CAMPUS is a location at your provider which students attend for their studies. We would expect this to be your main site (or lead school in the case of school direct ITT providers). All we require you to enter for each campus is the name of the campus and the postcode (the postcode determines the funding that the student receives i.e. inside / outside London). FRANCHISE is a location at another provider who is authorised to deliver your courses. When setting up a franchise provider, we will ask you to link your franchise provider to an existing provider on CMS. (If you are unable to locate the provider on CMS please contact HEP_Services@slc.co.uk). Courses that you have franchised out to another provider should be included in your course return and the franchised location used. We are aware that some HEPs want these franchise colleges to receive the student s tuition fee, but the accrediting HEP should always supply the course information and therefore the student s will appear on their attendance worklist in the Student Information Service. (The fees can then be passed on to the franchised provider by an independent arrangement between the provider and the franchise location). For more information on Franchise arrangements please refer to the HE Assessing Eligibility Guidance: TEACHER TRAINING SCHOOL is a location used to deliver School Direct Teacher Training courses For more information on ITT Providers please refer to Section 5 Courses Management Service 6 Student Loans Company Ltd

7 Section 4 Updating your courses UPDATING COURSE DETAILS FOR A NEW ACADEMIC YEAR When you access CMS and click on the Courses tab, the page will always default to the most recent academic year (AY). Previous AY s can be navigated to by using the AY tabs. Each new academic year, SLC will automatically populate your previous AY s course catalogue into the new academic year. The courses will be presented as being Unsaved and in a worklist format. Each publically funded provider is then required to open each individual course and ensure that the relevant term dates are populated and check that the course fee rate is correct or amend if necessary. Once this activity has been carried out the course can be saved for the new academic year. The course list will show two totals, the Total Courses and the number of Unsaved courses. Once an individual course is saved, the Unsaved Courses total at the top of the course list, will decrease to reflect the number of unsaved courses remaining. To assist you in the process of saving courses for the new AY, the course search facility can be used to filter on a specific sub-set of courses. This course search will persist so that you can work down a list of filtered courses, saving them individually and then returning to the previously selected filtered list of courses without having to enter a filter value again. When you access the first unsaved course for the new academic year, you will be required to manually type in the term dates for that course for the new academic year. Once this has been completed and you have saved the course, when you open up the next course to save for the new academic year, the term dates entered on the previous course will be automatically populated. This will persist until the point you amend the term dates by overtyping (from this point the newly entered term dates will become the default dates on all unsaved courses). Providers therefore may find it quicker to enter courses that all have the same term dates at the same time. Course fee rates will always be defaulted to the provider fee cap. If a course has a placement attribute against a specific year of a course, once a value is manually entered against this placement fee initially, this same value will automatically be used in all further courses that have the placement attribute. This placement value will persist until you manually amend the placement fee by overtyping. From this point onwards the newly updated placement fee will be defaulted on all unsaved courses with a placement attribute. POSTGRADUATE COURSES Eligible students on designated will be able to apply for a postgraduate loan. The postgraduate loan is: - a contribution towards the costs of study, i.e. it will be at the student s discretion to use the loan towards fees, maintenance costs or other cost - non-means tested; - paid directly to the student. Courses Management Service 7 Student Loans Company Ltd

8 In order to enable students to apply for a postgraduate loan from AY 16/17 onwards eligible providers will be able to enter details of eligible postgraduate courses into CMS to enable students to select as part of their application for a postgraduate loan. Only authority funded providers or alternative providers with degree awarding powers are permitted from entering details of eligible postgraduate courses. A funding level of postgraduate has been created in CMS to set these courses under. Further details on eligible courses for postgraduate loans can be viewed via the link below. Only postgraduate courses with a qualification of Taught Masters or Research Masters are eligible. Full time courses can be either one or two years in duration and part time courses can be entered with either a one year or two year full time equivalent duration. The postgraduate loan is only eligible for English domiciled and EU students. CREATING A NEW COURSE New undergraduate courses can be added from any specific academic year; however from AY 16/17 eligible providers will be able to enter courses that attract either undergraduate or postgraduate funding. On selecting the Add Course button, users will be prompted to specify if the course being added has a funding level of undergraduate or postgraduate. If postgraduate is selected, providers will be further prompted to determine if the course being added is to enable SFE / SFW domiciled students to apply for the Postgraduate Loan product or SF NI domiciled students to apply for the Northern Ireland Postgraduate Tuition Fee Loan. Validation is in place on the Add Course screen to ensure that the AY selected drives validation to ensure what course types can be created for which AY as per policy. If the new course is being created in a previous academic year it will automatically appear in any future academic year. When a new course is added a new SLC course code (or codes depending on number of course variants) will be created. A comprehensive list of the fields required at course level when creating a new course within CMS can be found on the Courses Service Management page of the HEP Services website. HE Providers are reminded that only designated courses (which are valid for statutory financial support) are to be added to the Courses Management Service. A course that has been designated under the Student Support Regulations allows eligible students on this course to access loans and grants from the Student Loans Company. For more information on the Student Support Regulations please refer to the SLC s Practitioners website. Below is some further guidance around the key fields that you will need to complete when creating either a new undergraduate or postgraduate course on CMS. Courses Management Service 8 Student Loans Company Ltd

9 COURSE NAME [MANDATORY FIELD SAME FOR BOTH UNDERGRADUATE & POSTGRADUATE COURSES] The course name can be up to 120 characters in length and should always be presented as the actual name of the course, as marketed on your prospectus or website. No other information about the course, such as the location, start date or duration should be entered as part of the course name as all these other attributes will be captured elsewhere when creating the course. Presenting the course name exactly as its marketed will assist in helping your students apply for the correct course first time. Where you have courses that share the same course and UCAS code (for example courses that run with or without a sandwich or placement year), we advise that you still include a unique identifier in the course title. This will assist your attendance return in SIS for those providers using the file import. Example: Business Studies with placement year QUALIFICATION UNDERGRADUATE [MANDATORY FIELD] The Student Loans Company have worked closely with the Department for Business Innovation & Skills and the devolved authorities in Wales, Scotland and Northern Ireland to create a concise and comprehensive list of undergraduate course qualifications. Bachelor qualifications are grouped together. If you are unsure as to which qualification is appropriate, a qualification mapping document is available on the CMS page of the HEP website The following qualifications remain in the undergraduate qualification drop down list and are not to be confused as being eligible for the postgraduate loan this is because these courses still attract undergraduate funding: - Postgraduate ITT Courses - Masters of Architecture - Integrated Master s - Scottish Master s - Scottish Postgraduate courses QUALIFICATION POSTGRADUATE [MANDATORY FIELD] When a course is set up with a funding level of postgraduate only two qualifications will be presented to the user in the qualifications drop down: - Taught Master s - Research Master s - Postgraduate Certificate (PG NI courses only) - Postgraduate Diploma (PG NI courses only) Further details on course eligibility for postgraduate courses can be found via the link below. Courses Management Service 9 Student Loans Company Ltd

10 HEP CODES [MANDATORY FIELD SAME FOR BOTH UNDERGRADUATE & POSTGRADUATE COURSES] We have provided 5 non mandatory (alphanumeric) fields that you can use to enter further course identifiers if required. These can be added to or changed at any point and can be utilised to tag and group courses by type such as placement courses / fee variances etc. On the course search facility you can filter by HEP codes to assist you in grouping your courses in whichever way you choose. DURATION UNDERGRADUATE [MANDATORY FIELD] A full time course with duration of between 1 and 6 years can be selected. The option is also provided to indicate if the course should contains a foundation year. For part time courses you should enter the full time equivalent duration of the part time course they are entering. DURATION POSTGRADUATE [MANDATORY FIELD] A full time postgraduate course may only have course duration of one or two years for SFE / SFW postgraduate courses. If the user selects to create a full time PG SFE / SFW course with a funding level of postgraduate the duration field will automatically default to one or two years. A full time and part time postgraduate NI course can have duration of one; two or three years and these durations will appear by default if the provider selects to enter a postgraduate course for Northern Ireland domiciled students. A part time postgraduate course for SFE / SFW domiciled students can be set up with duration of one or two years full time equivalent or 2 or 3 years fixed duration if there is no full time equivalent course. SFE / SFW Part time courses with a duration of 1 year full time equivalent will be studied over two years SFE / SFW Part time courses with a duration of 2 years full time equivalent will be studied over three or four years SFE /SFW Part time courses with a duration of 2 years No full time equivalent will be studied over two years SFE /SFW Part time courses with a duration of 3 years No full time equivalent will be studied over three years FOUNDATION YEARS [MANDATORY FIELD UNDERGRADUATE ONLY] Some full time undergraduate courses are extended beyond their normal length to include a foundation year which is designed to prepare for study in their chosen subject those entrants whose qualifications or experience, while acceptable for entry to higher education, are not entirely appropriate for normal entry to their particular course. Students are eligible for funding if the foundation year is an integral part of the course and that the course as a whole is designated by or under the Regulations; with students enrolling at the outset for the full duration of the extended course. Courses Management Service 10 Student Loans Company Ltd

11 If the student's enroll onto a four year course with an integrated foundation year, and after that year they transfer onto a course with a different course code, then the award authority are bound by the Regulations to reassess a student s standard entitlement as if they are transferring course. This would mean that once the student changes courses, regardless of whether this is a chosen pathway; they would be using up their additional year of funding (sometimes referred to as a gift year or a +1). This can impact students if they had studied previously or they need to repeat a year in the future, unless the course they are transferring to also has a foundation year and the student is going into an advanced year. Within the Courses Management Service, full time undergraduate courses with a foundation year can be created by selecting the Add Foundation Year checkbox within the Course Duration field which will create a course with the duration selected but with a marked foundation year (year 0). If a provider has two versions of a similar course, the only difference is that one version contains a foundation year. As part time courses are set up as one year only the foundation year attribute is only applicable to full time courses. Foundation Years are not applicable for Postgraduate courses. SUBJECT CATEGORY [MANDATORY FIELD - SAME FOR BOTH UNDERGRADUATE & POSTGRADUATE COURSES] The subject classification is a generic classification that is based on subject matter. The classification does not indicate the level of study being undertaken on the course, it is solely for the capturing the subject of the course, as the same list is used for courses at any level: undergraduate courses, postgraduate courses, as well as for continuing education programmes. The structure of the subject category is based on the JACS coding system (Joint Academic Coding of Subjects) and is presented as a 4 digit code (1 alpha, 3 numeric). JACS is the subject classification system used to describe the subject content of courses at UK higher education providers and was developed jointly by HESA (Higher Education Statistics Agency) and UCAS. Up to 3 subject categories can be recorded against a single course if required (for example a Bachelors degree in Geography and Mathematics would have two subject categories, one for the geography and one for the Mathematics elements). The subject category is a mandatory field for both full and part time courses. This subject category will be used to determine which part time courses are exempt to the equivalent or lower qualification rule (ELQ) being implemented for part-time study. An eligible student who holds an Honours degree or higher level HE qualification, and who starts a part-time Honours degree level course in engineering, technology or computer science, will qualify for a part-time fee loan for the new course. There is a link between the subject category selected and the healthcare related course attributes. Only courses set up with a subject category of either A or B can have one (or more) of the following healthcare attributes checked - Medicine / Dentistry - NHS Bursary - Paramedic course - Dental Hygiene / Therapy Courses Management Service 11 Student Loans Company Ltd

12 DESIGNATION UNDERGRADUATE [MANDATORY FIELD] Authority funded providers (often referred to as public providers) are providers that are maintained or supported by grants from their devolved authority (HEFCE / HEFCW / DELNI or SAAS). Authority funded (public) providers have their designation status for all domiciles automatically and CMS will default automatically to designate your courses in all domiciles however you do have the ability to change this at course level if you have courses only for students from a particular country. An alternative provider is the name given to any provider of higher education courses that: does not receive annual funding through the UK funding councils and does not receive any other form of direct annual public funding (for example, from a local authority, or the Secretary of State for Education) and is not a further education college. Courses that are provided wholly or in part by an alternative provider fall outside the scope of any automatic designation under the regulations and need to be specifically designated in order that eligible students may access student support. SLC will administer course details in CMS on behalf of alternative providers and only the domiciles for which the provider has specifically been designated for will be selected. Further information on the designation rules for alternative providers can be found below: DESIGNATION POSTGRADUATE [MANDATORY] In AY 16/17 only English domiciled and EU students were eligible to apply for postgraduate loans. When a user added a course with a funding level of postgraduate in AY 16/17 the domicile designation was defaulted to England only. There is no option for the user to amend this. From AY 17/18 English, Welsh and EU students are eligible to apply for postgraduate loans. When a user added a course with a funding level of postgraduate in AY 17/18, the domicile designation was defaulted to England and Wales only. Either England or Wales can be de-selected if required but no further domiciles can be added. Once a provider saves a course there is no option to add another domicile. From AY 17/18 NI domiciled students are eligible to apply for the Northern Ireland Postgraduate Tuition Fee Loan and postgraduate courses can be set up in CMS specifically for NI students. These courses are defaulted to the NI domicile only. Only students from the domicile checked against the course in CMS can view and apply for that course in our Customer Portal when completing an application. Alternative Providers can enter details of Postgraduate courses into CMS to enable their students to apply for the Postgraduate Loan. However, this is for English domiciled students only and from AY 17/18 onwards. Courses Management Service 12 Student Loans Company Ltd

13 FEES - UNDERGRADUATE [MANDATORY FIELD] Different fee caps can be entered for each domicile to enable you to manage fee variants and caps. (For example Welsh and NI Providers will be able to manage within one course their separate fee structures for students from different domiciles). The system is defaulted to apply the same fee rates across all domiciles and you should untick this if you wish to put a different fee amount for a particular domicile. If required providers can enter a course fee for a particular year of a course with a course fee rate of zero (this may be useful if your provider offers courses with a placement year). Part time courses only require one fee rate to be entered regardless of the duration selected (although different fee rates can be entered per domicile if the course is split over differing domiciles). Within the Provider page of CMS, there is an AY specific provider fee cap displayed for both full and part time courses. This fee cap is administered on your behalf by SLC. No course fees can be entered within CMS that exceed this provider fee cap. With the introduction of the Teaching Excellence Framework (TEF) from AY 17/18, providers that achieve TEF status, can charge a higher fee amount than providers that do not achieve TEF status. It is at the discretion of each provider if the higher TEF fee amount is applied to all course years for all students or just set to course year 1 for their new students (Fee change, change of circumstance notifications can be submitted for direct entrant students that apply to a course year that has a course fee amount lower than the provider fee cap). FEES - POSTGRADUATE [NI POSTGRADUATE ONLY] As the postgraduate loan product for SFE / SFW students is paid directly to the student, the course fee rate is not required to be populated in CMS. When a user adds a course with a funding level of postgraduate and SFE / SFW is selected, no course fee box is presented on the course capture screen. The Northern Ireland Tuition Fee Loan product requires a tuition fee to be entered when setting up the course in CMS. When a provider opts to set up this course type, a course fee rate will be required per course year. This fee entered can be higher than the provider fee cap displayed within the Provider page of CMS. COURSE CREDITS [MANDATORY FOR ALL PART TIME UNDERGRADUATE COURSES] All providers are required to enter a value in the Credits field on all part time undergraduate course. Once this value has been populated once it will be included as part of the core course information and will therefore not require to be amended each academic year. The total number of credits associated to the entire course, rather than the number of credits available by the course year, should be entered in this free type field and then saved. The part time course will not be able to be saved until a value has been entered into this field. The capturing of the number of credits associated to a part time course in CMS is the first step towards future proofing the CMS service to assist us going forward as the structure of how part time courses are collected and presented to the student is enhanced Courses Management Service 13 Student Loans Company Ltd

14 COURSE ATTRIBUTES (OPTIONAL FIELD) Within CMS, courses will be able to have various specific attributes applied to them, which will also assist us in ensuring that the correct level of support is given to the student during the application process. There is no limit on the number of attributes applied to a single course. Not all attributes are applicable to both undergraduate and postgraduate courses this is reflected in the listing below The selectable course attributes are as follows; DISTANCE LEARNING an indicator against the course to highlight that the particular course has a distance learning method of attendance as a course attribute. Distance Learning courses are courses that provide a mode of delivery for students that do not attend traditional on campus courses. The Distance Learning attribute can be applied to both full and part time courses however for part time courses there is no difference in the levels of student support awarded to those pt courses that are flagged as distance learning as to those that are not. The distance learning attribute when applied against a part time course only indicates that the student will not be attending a campus location for the majority of their study. Students studying a full time distance learning course are not eligible for maintenance support. (APPLICABLE TO ALL POSTGRADUATE course types & all UNDERGRADUATE courses) Distance Learning as a mode of study can be subject to individual student circumstance and application where the student is prevented from attending the institution due to disability, or specific to course designation. For a course to be designated as a full time distance learning course, the following criteria must be met: the course is not for the purpose of initial training of teachers the course is a full-time course (generally 120 credits per year) the course is at least one academic year's duration; and students undertaking the course in the United Kingdom are not required to be in attendance at the campus of the institution Any requirement to attend the campus (site) for registration/enrolment, examination or weekend/vacation attendance should be disregarded. Where a course meets the above criteria, the distance learning indicator should be applied. For further information on Distance Learning Courses please follow the link below: PLACEMENT/SANDWICH COURSES - this is a method of attendance course attribute and allows the placement year to be flagged. It consists of alternate periods of full time study in a provider and periods of work experience or study externally. It should be noted that courses where the majority of study is delivered overseas are not designated for student support. The placement attribute can only be applied to full time courses and is therefore not available when creating a part time course. The placement attribute can be applied to more than one year of an individual course. (UNDERGRADUATE COURSES ONLY) For further information on Placement / Sandwich courses please follow the link below: Courses Management Service 14 Student Loans Company Ltd

15 NHS BURSARY this indicator can be set to show that the course is applicable for an NHS Bursary. There are various elements of student support available for students that are undertaking Health Related courses that attract NHS funding. When selected against a full time course the applicable years can be ticked that the bursary applies to. However, if this attribute is selected when setting up a part time course the flag will go against the course as a whole. (UNDERGRADUATE COURSES ONLY). Once the provider selects the NHS Bursary, the course year(s) that the bursary is to be applicable to, then requires to be entered by the provider. It is critical that the provider sets up appropriate courses with the NHS Bursary attribute and sets this against the relevant course years as the assessment for student support is determined by how the course is set in CMS. From AY 17/18 going forward, new students at English providers, are no longer eligible for NHS Bursary support and as such, the NHS Bursary indicator can t be set at these providers against either foundation year or course year one of the NHS flagged courses. The NHS Bursary indicator cannot be used at the same time as the Medicine / Dentistry attribute. For further information on NHS Bursaries and the support they attract for students please follow the link below: DENTAL HYGIENE / THERAPY FLAG - this indicator should be used to highlight any Dental Hygiene or Dental Therapy courses as they are assessed in a different manner from some of the standard NHS courses PARAMEDIC COURSE FLAG - this indicator should be used to highlight any Paramedic courses to enable any students on these courses to be assessed in a particular manner as some Paramedic courses can attract NHS support and some don t. Therefore an identifying flag is required to highlight these courses in order for students on them to have their applications manually checked. INTERCALATING COURSES this indicator can be set to show that the course is an intercalating course. An intercalated course is a course which is not higher than first degree level and leads to more than one qualification, either as an option or an integral part of the course, which will be considered as single courses (these are medical, dental and veterinary courses). This attribute can be selected against both full and part time courses. (UNDERGRADUATE COURSES ONLY) For further information on intercalated courses please follow the link below: MEDICINE /DENTISTRY this indicator can be set to show that the course is a Medical or Dental course and whether the entry for this course was at an Undergraduate or Graduate level. Based on this distinction student support will vary. This attribute can be set against both full and part time courses. (UNDERGRADUATE COURSES ONLY) The NHS Bursary indicator cannot be used at the same time as the Medicine / Dentistry attribute. For further information on medical / dental courses please follow the link below: Courses Management Service 15 Student Loans Company Ltd

16 ENTERING TERM DATES ON CMS UNDERGRADUATE [MANDATORY FIELD] All undergraduate courses entered into CMS require three sets of term dates in order to pass system validation. When either saving a course in a new academic year or creating a new full time course, the term dates you manually enter will be copied forward to the next course you save or create. Therefore if you have standardised term dates this will reduce the amount of repetition when saving / setting up courses. If your provider does not have standardised term dates it is recommended that courses are bulked together by term dates when populating the system with course details. When creating a new course, once all term dates have been entered for all years of a particular course there is an option to add another intake of this course. This would mean that if the course that is being created is a September start course, a separate intake for the same course which starts at a later date in the academic year (i.e. January) can also be entered. When entering a part time course, term dates are not required however you will be required to enter an intake for the course you are setting up. The intakes are the month that the part time course will be starting in within that academic year. Multiple intakes can be added per part time course in cases where you may a part time course that starts at varying points across the academic year. When saving a course in a new academic year the number of intakes cannot be increased / decreased. For full time courses, if required the first intake month can be amended when saving in the new academic year. For example if your course had a September intake in the previous AY, this can be amended to October in the new academic year. Validation is in place in CMS to highlight that only courses that contain a compressed course year should be entered with a term 3 start date of before the 1 st April.All other full time undergraduate courses should not have a term 3 start date before the 1 st of April. This is to prevent the scheduling of 3 lots of tuition fee payments within one financial year. Please be aware that in the years that a bank holiday falls at the beginning of April, the term 3 start date should be 3 rd April at the earliest. The SLC s payment system schedules payments before the bank holiday which means that even if a term 3 start date falls on the 1 st or 2 nd of April, the payments would need to be processed in the March. Further information on term dates can be found on page 17 Further information on compressed courses can be found on page 23 ENTERING TERM DATES ON CMS POSTGRADUATE [MANDATORY FIELD] SFE / SFW Postgraduate courses only require a course start date to be entered into CMS. This should be the date that the course teaching starts on and will also be the first payment date of the first instalment of the postgraduate loan to the student. The start month should be highlighted then the course start date typed in. Postgraduate courses can start from 1 st August onwards in an academic year. Both full and part time courses just require one single start date. The second and third payment dates are automatically scheduled four and seven months following the course start date entered in CMS. Up to twelve intakes can be created under a postgraduate course only one per month. Courses Management Service 16 Student Loans Company Ltd

17 Postgraduate courses for the Northern Ireland Tuition Fee Loan require a full set of start and end date for each three terms of each individual course year to be entered in CMS (this mirrors the undergraduate full time course model). EDIT COURSE UNDERGRADUATE ONLY (OPTIONAL) You have the facility to edit a course that has already been added to CMS. By clicking on the 'Edit' button next to the Course Details section of an already added course, you can amend: - Course Name - UCAS Code - HEP Code(s) - Subject Category - Intercalated Course indicator - Placement Year The user is then provided with the option of either saving or cancelling these changes. For full time courses, you can also edit academic year specific information i.e. term dates and fee rates can be changed at any time. For part time courses, whilst the course fee rate can be amended the intakes cannot. When making changes to courses already added to CMS, the provider will be given a warning message to communicate these changes with our Partner Services Service Line team before progressing. EDIT COURSE POSTGRADUATE ONLY (OPTIONAL) Saved SFE / SFW Postgraduate courses can also be edited after being initially created. By clicking on the Edit button next to the Course Details section of an already added a course, you can amend: - Course Name - Qualification - UCAS Code - HEP Code(s) - Subject category - Course start date* *The course start date can be edited up until the point the course starts. Once this start date has passed it is no longer eligible. The course start date can only be edited in line with our seasonal restrictions. Further information on editing term dates can be found on page XXXX Saved SFNI Postgraduate courses can too be edited after the course has been added to CMS. By clicking on the Edit button next to the Course Details section of an already added a course, you can amend: - Course Name - Qualification - UCAS Code - HEP Code(s) - Subject category - Term dates* - Course fee Courses Management Service 17 Student Loans Company Ltd

18 *The course term dates can be edited at any point, the intake month of the course can be amended on roll-over only but not thereafter and all term dates can only be edited in line with our seasonal restrictions. Course start date can only be edited in line with our seasonal restrictions. COURSE SEARCH / FILTER (OPTIONAL) You can search and filter on your courses in any way that you choose, using the search bar facility at the top of the screen. By using the free type search bar you can filter on any combination of the following areas: - Course Name - UCAS code, - HEP code(s), - Qualification, - Foundation Year courses, - Placement courses, - Full time / Part Time courses - Unsaved Courses - Postgraduate / Undergraduate - Mode of Study, - Duration, - NHS Bursary courses, - Distance Learning courses, - Intercalated courses - Medical & Dental course Alternatively underneath the search bar in the What Can I Search For link the searchable attributes are listed and by clicking on each one, the results of that search will be returned. EXPORT COURSES (OPTIONAL) Course information that has been added can be exported if required by clicking the export drop-down button on the courses page of CMS. Users are given the option of either selecting a specific academic year to export or selecting to export all courses across all academic years. The export contains all fields at course and academic year level and is in CSV file format. Courses Management Service 18 Student Loans Company Ltd

19 TERM DATE GUIDANCE FULL TIME UNDERGRADUATE COURSES ONLY We ll ask for the term start and end dates for each of the three terms for every year that the course is running. We do this as the start dates determine our payments to your students who have maintenance support. Term dates are only required for full time courses part time courses only require the relevant intakes to be highlighted. It is the responsibility of each HEP to ensure that the term dates entered are an accurate reflection of the teaching provided to students attending that course SEMESTERISED TIMETABLES If you operate on a semesterised basis, then you must create start and end dates for three separate terms that reflects as accurately as possible the study pattern of your students. A suggestion would be that any holiday periods given in the second semester may be utilised as a natural break for your terms. Any mid term holidays should be taken off the end of each term. LENGTH OF YOUR COURSES You should determine the length of your course on the basis of the number of weeks during term time when students on that course are attending lectures, undertaking course work or taking exams on a full-time basis. It should also include reading periods and revision weeks up to when the student takes examinations and assessments. It does not include periods at the end of the academic year after full-time study, examinations and assessments for that academic year have been completed when students are awaiting results. Our guidance for term dates is that the academic year is the 12 month period beginning either on the 1 st January, 1 st April, 1 st July, or 1 st September and the Courses Management Service will prevent you from entering term dates that stretch beyond the 52 weeks. The system will also prevent term dates being entered prior to the 1 st August in an academic year as this is the earliest date that the AY can begin. Note When entering term start dates (for autumn start courses) Term 1 cannot start before 1 st August Term 2 cannot start before 1 st Jan Term 3 cannot start before 1 st April When entering term start dates (for winter start courses) Term 1 cannot start before 1 st Jan Term 2 cannot start before 1 st April Term 3 cannot start before 1 st June When entering term start dates (for spring start courses) Term 1 cannot start before 1 st April Term 2 cannot start before 1 st June Term 3 cannot start before 1 st Oct When entering term start dates (for summer start courses) Term 1 cannot start before 1 st June Term 2 cannot start before 1 st Oct Term 3 cannot start before 1 st Jan Courses Management Service 19 Student Loans Company Ltd

20 FURTHER TERM DATE GUIDANCE Terms should not be entered as starting on a Saturday or Sunday. LONG COURSES When entering term dates, the total number of study weeks for all three terms, when added together should not normally exceed 30 weeks and 3 days. In circumstances where the teaching provided over the duration of a course exceeds 30 weeks then students studying these courses could be entitled to a long courses loan. Please ensure that any holidays are accounted for when entering term dates and are not included within any term. (i.e. for autumn start courses this would include the Christmas & Easter holiday periods). Further information on term dates for compressed or shortened academic years please see Section 5 AVAILABLE COURSE YEARS The available course years function enables providers to manage individual student applications more effectively by determining if a particular year of a course should be visible to students applying on-line or not. This function enables providers to phase in or phase out courses and gives greater flexibility to providers than using the open / closed course status indicator. The available course years can be edited at any time although providers should be aware that changes made take approximately 4 hours to filter through to our application system. Available course years functionality is only available for FT undergraduate courses from AY 16/17 onwards. The three settings are as follows : - All Students - Returners (continuing students and repeaters) - No students All courses are defaulted to All Students. As Alternative Providers do not have administrative access to CMS, any requests to use the available course years functionality should be forwarded to HEP_Services@slc.co.uk and SLC will administer on behalf of the provider. The available course years function has no impact on students that have already applied / been approved for a course it is simply a tool for providers to manage which course years can be selected on application. Similarly there is no impact on downstream systems (change of circumstances / SIS) on students already approved on courses that are edited. Students that apply on paper will have their applications approved as normal even if the available course years has been amended to prevent applications this is for on-line applications only. In instances where a course year has been set to Returners and an end on student applies, the student would be prevented from applying as End on students are classed as new students. In this instance the course year should be amended to All students in order to enable the End On student to apply and then the course year switched back to Returners once the student has applied. Courses Management Service 20 Student Loans Company Ltd

21 Section 5 Further Guidance SCHOOL CENTRED INITIAL TEACHER TRAINING (SCITT) SCITT programmes are initial teacher training post graduate courses designed and delivered by groups of schools and colleges which have been accredited by the National College of Teaching & Leadership (NCTL). The courses lead to Qualified Teaching Status (QTS) with many also awarding a Postgraduate Certificate in Education (PGCE) that is validated by a higher education provider. There are consortia of schools and colleges running SCITT courses all over England providing different kinds of teacher training, covering primary, middle years and the full range of secondary subjects. SCITT courses generally last for one year full-time. SCHOOL DIRECT COURSES School Direct places are available in certain primary and secondary schools across England and are delivered in partnership with an accredited ITT provider (a SCITT or a University / College). These full time programmes generally last for one academic year, although where the programme is undertaken on a part-time basis it will usually take longer. School Direct Training Programme can be salaried or unsalaried. Only students on the unsalaried route are eligible for student finance, however as this is a student attribute rather than a course attribute there is no need to capture this detail at course level. Where undertaken on a full-time basis, students on these courses can attract the full time package of support. Where undertaken on a part-time basis, these students can attract the part time tuition loan only. These courses should be entered as normal on the Courses Service with appropriate qualification being selected. COURSE DESIGNATION SLC are responsible for the administration and application of all regulations associated to course designation for both full and part time courses This is to ensure that only courses that are validated as designated are displayed on CMS, as they are the only courses that can attract student support. We have built rules within the system based around duration, qualifications, location and type of course. Only designated courses can be added to CMS. Adding course information to the Courses Management Service will push the information through designation validation (where applicable). The designation validation checks the course format; course year and course term data associated with course academic year, against the designation rules. Course designation rules have been agreed by all award authorities in England, Wales, Scotland and Northern Ireland. AUTOMATIC DESIGNATION To be automatically designated a course either has to be: provided by an authority-funded educational institution provided by a publicly funded institution in the UK on behalf of an authority funded provider provided by an authority provider in conjunction with a provider outside the UK Courses Management Service 21 Student Loans Company Ltd