Briefing from Skill: National Bureau for Students with Disabilities and

National Association of Disability Practitioners (NADP)

New Arrangements for Student Finance Delivery in England

Skill and NADP have produced this briefing to update their members on

the new arrangements for the delivery of student finance in England,

which includes the arrangements for processing Disabled Students'

Allowances (DSAs).

Background

In 2006, the then Department for Education and Skills (DfES), now

Department for Innovation, Universities and Skills (DIUS), conducted an

end-to-end review of student finance in England. The Department

concluded that there should be a single national provider of HE student

finance in England, rather than it being delivered through the 150 or so

local authorities. As a result, the Student Loans Company was appointed

as this provider and will operate in this capacity, from September 2008,

under the brand name Student Finance England.

In Wales, Northern Ireland and Scotland, the situation remains the same,

ie all student finance including DSAs will be administered through the

Local Education Authorities, the Education and Library Boards and the

Student Awards Agency for Scotland (SAAS) respectively.

The Student Loans Company itself will continue to administer the payment

and repayment of all student loans, tuition fees for all UK HEIs that

charge them, Education Maintenance Allowances (EMAs) for Wales and N.

Ireland, the Higher Education Bursary and Scholarship Service (HEBSS) in

England and the Welsh Bursary Service.

New arrangements from September 2008

General student finance for full-time undergraduates

Student Finance England will be the single national provider of all

information, advice, guidance and processing of applications for loans,

support grants including DSA, tuition fees, and bursaries from September

2008. This will cover all students applying to enter HE in 2009/10. All

returning students and students entering HE in 2008 will continue to be

processed by their relevant local authority. 

Student Finance England will have a customer contact centre in

Darlington, dealing with all enquiries, by phone, email, and letter.

Information and application for general student finance will be done

predominantly online.

University application cycle

The majority of full-time undergraduate students currently wishing to

enter HE start to apply to their chosen universities through UCAS in

September, a year before they wish to enter HE. The UCAS cycle finishes

the following January (with some exceptions such as medicine and

Oxbridge).  Student Finance England will move the student finance cycle

to coincide with the UCAS cycle, so that students can apply to UCAS and

to Student Finance England at the same time. Therefore, when students

are applying to UCAS, from the September before they start their course,

they will also be able to access information about, and apply for,

tuition fees, bursaries, maintenance grants, other grants, DSAs, etc

from Student Finance England.

DSA Applications

From September 2008, Student Finance England will process DSA

applications for students wishing to enter HE in 2009/10.

All students entering HE in 2008 and all returning students will

continue to liaise with their local authorities about DSA issues. These

students should contact their current local authority or, if their

authority was participating in the Darlington pilot, the appropriate

contact details for Darlington. Details for local authorities are

available at

http://www.studentfinancedirect.co.uk/portal/page?_pageid=53,1259947&_da

d=portal&_schema=PORTAL

At the present time, those studying postgraduate courses or those on

courses funded through the NHS will continue to contact their relevant

Research Council, local authority or the NHS Bursaries Unit for

information about DSAs.

There will be a specialist team, based at the Darlington HQ, handling

and processing all new applications for, and enquiries about, DSAs.

Students will be given a named contact at the Darlington HQ in order to

direct any enquiries they have about their application.

Whilst the application for general student finance will be online in

various formats, from September 2008, the DSA application form itself

will only be available online as a PDF document until September 2009.

DSA Assessments

DSA Assessments will continue to operate as they do now. Once a student

has been assessed as eligible by Student Finance England, they will

contact a DSA-QAG audited Assessment Centre and undergo their assessment

in the usual way. For further details, refer to Bridging the Gap, which

is available at

http://www.studentfinancedirect.co.uk/pls/portal/docs/PAGE/SPIPG001/SPIP

S001/SPIPS008/SFD%20BRIDGING%20THE%20GAP%202008-09.PDF

(Please note this is a PDF file)

DSA payments will continue to be processed as they are now with one

notable exception. Student Finance England is proposing that, to

facilitate purchasing of small consumables, all students in receipt of

DSAs are paid a small amount of money from their General Allowance, in

three instalments each year, to pay for small items such as

photocopying, printer cartridges, etc. Receipts will not need to be

provided. More information on this will be provided as it is known.

Information, Advice and Guidance (IAG)

Student Finance England will also take over responsibility for all IAG

for HE student finance and this will be run centrally from the

Darlington Contact Centre, with the main channels of communication being

online and phone. Specialist face-to-face support will be provided for a

small minority of students who need additional support, such as disabled

students, those with English as a second language, carers, and students

from low-income households.  This will be delivered locally and

regionally through existing mechanisms (such as schools, connexions,

local authorities). Student Finance England are also in the process of

appointing 12 regional IAG consultants, who will work on the ground with

schools, HEIs, FECs, etc.

Student Finance England Contact Details

Website: http://www.studentfinancedirect.co.uk

Tel: 0845 607 7577

Minicom: 0845 604 4434

Opening times: Mon-Fri, 8.00am to 8.00pm and Sat-Sun 9.00am to 5.30pm