National Scholarship Programme (NSP)

1. What is the National Scholarship Programme (NSP)?

The NSP is a government programme designed to benefit individual students from disadvantaged backgrounds as they enter higher education from autumn 2012. 

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2. How is it funded? 

It is funded through a mixture of government and institutional funding. The Government’s contribution to the programme will be £100 million in 2013-14 and £150 million in 2014-15. Institutions will match-fund this contribution, to different levels and means, depending on a variety of factors as set out in the section on match-funding below.

We have made provisional allocations available to institutions.  This sets outs the total level of government contribution they will receive, and to how many full-time equivalent scholarships this equates. The provisional allocations are an indication only. Final allocations, which will be published in February 2013, are likely to differ. 

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3. What can the NSP be used for?

Unlike many widening participation programmes which focus on outreach, the NSP is designed to provide direct benefit to individual students. The Government has provided a 'menu' of options from which institutions may choose how to offer their scholarships.

These are:

• a fee waiver or fee discount
• a free foundation year
• discounted accommodation or other similar institutional service
• a financial scholarship or bursary, capped as a cash award at £1,000.

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4. Where can we find details of NSP allocations and programme rules?

Provisional allocations and the programme guidance are available on this web-site.

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5. Is participation in the NSP compulsory for all higher education institutions or providers?

This depends.

It is compulsory for institutions intending to charge above £6,000 for any of their full-time undergraduate fees and/or above £4,500 for any of their part-time undergraduate fees from 2013-14. 

Institutions intending to charge £6,000 or less for their full-time fees and £4,500 or less for their part-time fees may opt out of the programme.

If an institution wishes to opt out it must inform us of this decision in the template provided on the extranet. Further information on this is in the programme guidance.

If we do not receive the template confirming plans for the NSP or notification of opt-out by 31 May 2012, we will assume that the institution is not participating in the programme and we will remove its NSP allocation. 

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6. We opted out last year can we opt back in?

All eligible institutions will be included in the NSP even if they have opted out in previous years. For the academic year 2013-14 institutions are being asked to opt in rather than opt out. 

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7. What are the expectations of institutions in relation to the programme?

Broadly speaking, institutions are required to:

• devise a process to robustly manage applications (including for franchise students)
• define and publicise their criteria for the NSP at their institution
• match-fund the government contribution in line with the guidance
• verify eligibility (including assessing income for part-time and EU students)
• account for the funds
• report on recipients through the Higher Education Statistics Agency or the individualised learner record and through monitoring widening participation strategic assessments and access agreements
• participate in the HEFCE-managed review of the NSP.

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8. Is there a minimum number of scholarships we should award?

Yes. The provisional allocations state the number of full-time equivalent scholarships that each institution's allocation will deliver. This represents the minimum number of scholarships that each institution is expected to award.

It is not acceptable for institutions to use the Government's contribution to offer larger awards to fewer students. For example, if an institution's allocation is £300,000 this will deliver £3,000 each to 100 full-time students (or part-time pro rata equivalent); it would not be acceptable for the institution to use the government contribution to award £4,000 each to 75 full-time students.

But it is up to the institution how they use the match-funding in terms of topping up awards to individual learners, or providing awards to a wider pool of learners as long as the minimum benefit to a learner is £3,000 (or pro rata equivalent for part-time learners).

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9. Can we use the money to support outreach projects?

No. The NSP is designed to provide direct financial benefit to individual students.

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10. Why are cash awards limited to £1,000?

This is the limit that the Department for Business, Innovation and Skills has specified. 

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11. What is the definition of 'other similar institutional service'?

This is deliberately vague in order to allow maximum flexibility for institutions. We know that some institutions are considering the waiver of bench fees, catering fees, field-trip costs, or considering the provision of learning resources such as the provision of laptops and books. But the service would need to be one which normally incurs direct costs for which the student is liable. 

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12. Can NSP awards be used to meet the costs of private accommodation?

It would be possible to offer students the option of a voucher that can be used for the express purpose of meeting private accommodation costs. However, institutions also offering a £1,000 cash award would need to ensure that the contribution to the cost of private accommodation does not result in an additional cash payment.

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13. What is the minimum benefit to the student and what is that made up of in terms of government contribution and institutional match? 

It is expected that the full government element of each scholarship must be delivered in the year of entry for the student.

Each eligible full-time student will receive a benefit of not less than £3,000, with a pro rata amount delivered to part-time students. If an institution wishes to charge above the 2013-14 basic fee level (£6,000 for full-time students and £4,500 for part-time students) and is therefore intending to submit an access agreement to the Office for Fair Access (OFFA), it will provide a matched contribution to the programme of at least the same value. That is, an institution will offer a full-time match of at least the value of £3,000 with the appropriate pro rata amount for part-time students.

The institution may choose to either 'top up' the scholarship awarded to individual students to increase their total award, or to offer additional scholarships to other eligible students, or a combination of the two.

The Government has acknowledged that the matched contribution requirement may adversely affect the ability of some institutions to continue to invest the necessary resources in important outreach activity. If this is the case, the institution may make a case to OFFA for those institutions expected to provide a 100 per cent match contribution, and to HEFCE for those expected to provide a 50 per cent match contribution for a reduced level of match which they would then consider.

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14. How will our required level of investment in NSP contributions change between 2013-14 and 2014-15? What assumptions should we make for the purposes of access agreements? 

Institutions should discuss this with OFFA. But to summarise there is £100 million available in 2013-14, rising to £150 million in 2014-15. The government contribution will be given to students in the first year of their course, so the assumption is that there will be greater numbers of scholarship awards in later years (and therefore greater levels of matched contributions required). But we and OFFA have been asked to review the programme during its initial years, in order to inform its development for the future.

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15. We want to use the NSP to encourage retention – can we spread payments across years?

Yes, in terms of your match-funding. Institutions must deliver the £3,000 government contribution (or pro rata for part-time students) to a student in their initial year of study. But institutions can use the match-funded element flexibly. Should they use their match funding to increase the value of the scholarship, they will be able to choose whether they deliver the full award in the first year, or spread the contribution over subsequent years. But there is a cap on the cash award that can be offered, which is £1,000 in total.

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16. Can we use our match funding to provide cash awards in later years?

There is a cap on the cash award that can be offered - which is £1,000 in total. But institutions can deliver this across different years, or in later years of the student's course. Institutions are also free to use other income to enhance the package of support they provide to learners. See below for additional requirements in this area.

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17. If we allocate additional funds for scholarships and bursaries above and beyond matching requirements, will there be any rules set for criteria around this?

Any scholarships or bursaries institutions provide that are outside the NSP would not have to follow the rules of the NSP. They would need to be included in the access agreement to OFFA if the institution were proposing to use its fee income to fund them, but the criteria and operation of such separate schemes would be a matter for the institution.

But anything advertised as an NSP award needs to be in line with the rules, and easy to identify in monitoring returns to HEFCE and OFFA.

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18. How will institutions decide who is eligible? 

The Government has set very broad-based national eligibility criteria for the programme based on household income. Students are eligible to apply for a scholarship if their declared household residual income is £25,000 or less, whether they are full-time or part-time students.

Additional eligibility criteria will be a matter for individual institutions, and it will be the responsibility of each institution to operate transparent and fair processes and procedures for making NSP awards. We have provided some general advice on priority groups, and good practice in targeting as part of the NSP guidance.

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19. What advice can you give on devising criteria?

This is a matter for institutions to decide based on their in-depth knowledge of their market and widening participation strategy. It is important that all processes are robust, evidence-informed, and comply with relevant equalities legislation. 

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20. Are there any groups or nationalities of students who are not eligible?

Yes and details are set out in the guidance. In summary, NSP awards should usually only be used to assist people who qualify for different elements of student support under the current Education (Student Support) Regulations.

This means that NSP awards will not be available to individuals who are ordinarily resident in Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland. It also means that the maintenance element of an NSP award will not be available to part-time or EU students.

The following groups of students are not eligible:

• NHS-funded students
• students undertaking a postgraduate ITT course leading to QTS
• students directly continuing from one course to another (for example, from foundation degree or HND on to the final year of an honours degree)
• students transferring in from another institution
• students undertaking a postgraduate qualification
• part-time students studying at less than 25 per cent intensity of the full-time equivalent
• any other students whose fees are paid or part-paid through a sponsorship arrangement.

The letter sent to heads of institutions on 28 March 2012 clarifies the position with regards to students undertaking a postgraduate ITT course leading to QTS.

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21. Part time students are not eligible for maintenance through the NSP. Should their pro rata award be calculated on £3000 less the maintenance part of the NSP award we expect to give full time students?  

Part-time students should be given their full, pro-rata award in fee waiver. In other words, a student studying at 50 percent intensity would receive a fee waiver of £1,500 as a minimum. 

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22. Can we award NSP scholarships to students with equivalent or lower qualifications?

In principle yes, but detailed eligibility criteria are a matter for individual institutions to decide. Although eligibility is usually based on student support eligibility, institutions do have an option to provide NSP awards to these learners.  This may not be a group of learners they wish to prioritise given their wider student market and the number of potential eligible learners.

The Government has, nevertheless, confirmed that this group of students are eligible where the institution believes there is a pressing priority to support them. This may apply where the student is retraining to find employment.

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23. Can we use any of the following as criteria?

• Lower income threshold (for example, £15,000). Yes as long as you consider whether there need to be exceptions to this limit for certain groups of students (for example, those with disabilities).
• Subjects where we want to encourage a greater uptake by students from disadvantaged backgrounds (for example, science or maths). Yes, again as long as there is robust justification.
• POLAR quintiles (neighbourhoods). We would normally query using the POLAR quintiles because such criteria are useful as a proxy for national funding models and policy purposes, but when making awards to individual students this use might be less justifiable. But it is up to institutions to consider whether this is a justifiable criterion when combined with household income and other factors which do address individual characteristics.
• Attainment. Yes, although institutions would need to be sure that they were not inadvertently discriminating against older applicants or learners without traditional qualifications.
• School. This is similar to the issue of POLAR quintiles set out above. But there may be a valid justification when combined with household income and other factors which do address individual characteristics.

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24. How do students apply for the NSP?

Students will apply directly to the institution as set out on the institutional web-sites (this may or may not require an additional form to be completed by the student). UCAS will provide information on whether an institution awards NSP funds as part of its new 'Course Finder' facility. 

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25. Will there be a central UCAS and CUKAS application process in place for 2013-14?

There is no centralised application process for the NSP. Institutions will need to have their own application process in place.  

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26. What advice can you give on devising an application process?

Institutions have flexibility to design an application process which best suits the criteria they have set and their student market. When designing their application and assessment process for the NSP, institutions should carefully consider what additional information they might need from the applicant over and above that already supplied either through UCAS or in the case of direct applicants, on their own main application form. 

The guidance sets out advice for the application process (see paragraphs 61-69). It is important that all processes are robust and comply with relevant equalities legislation. But there is no requirement for processes to be centrally 'approved'.

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27. What about learners who apply late or through clearing?

The guidance sets out advice in this area (see paragraphs 67-68). An institution will need to determine how many scholarships it should hold back from the standard application cycle based on the number and characteristics of such applicants in previous years. 

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28. How can we market and/or advertise the NSP?

Again, this is up to each institution to decide how it uses its marketing and widening participation outreach activity to further inform potential applicants of their NSP provision. As a minimum, institutions must ensure that information regarding the operation of, and the criteria for, the NSP is readily available to eligible students and published on each institution's web-site. The guidance sets out more details on what this should include (see paragraphs 53-60).

Institutions also need to ensure that franchise students and those who apply directly to the institution (for example, part-time learners) are made aware of the NSP. Again, the programme guidance offers advice in this area (see paragraph 58). We would also encourage institutions to set the detail of the NSP alongside information about other institutional or course bursaries, scholarships and awards for which applicants might be eligible, to ensure that NSP applicants do not overlook other opportunities for support. 

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29. What advice can you give us on assessing income for part-time and EU learners?

For those applicants that are not entitled to state maintenance support (part-time students, for example), institutions will have to use their own methods of verifying residual household income to assess eligibility. On 13 March 2012 we issued guidance to the sector on income verification for part time students. The Student Loan Company (SLC) will carry out verification of income of part time and EU students as a paid for service. Institutions would need to contact the SLC for further information about this service.  

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30. Where can I find out our allocation? 

We have published provisional allocations for the programme on this web-site.

We have also sent details of how to access the underlying data used to calculate the allocations on our extranet to HESES and HEIFES contacts in higher education institutions and further education colleges.

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31. How is the award rate of 0.087 full awards per FTE calculated?

This is calculated as the total number of full NSP awards available for 2013-14 (33,290) divided by the total HESES/HEIFES11 new entrants for the sector (weighted by the NSP proportion for each institution), while taking into account that a minimum of one full NSP award per institution applies for most institutions.  We intend to re-calculate this rate in February 2013 as the final allocation for 2013-14 will be based on HESES/HEIFES12 new entrants instead of HESES/HEIFES11 new entrants.

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32. Why is our allocation £0?

£0 is allocated when a college has opted out in 2012-13 (to opt back in please contact nsp@hefce.ac.uk) or, according to the 2009-10 HESA or ILR data, the institution does not have any students that meet all the conditions set out below.

The institution has not, therefore, generated an NSP allocation (the field name and values in brackets relate to the NSP individualised file available from our extranet):

• HEFCE-fundable (NSPTYPE = HOMEF, HOMEIF) or model 2 Lifelong Learning Network students (NSPTYPE = M2LLN) in 2009-10
• undergraduates in 2009-10 (NSPLEVEL09 = UGX, FD)
• new entrants on HESES09/HEIFES09 (NSPENTRANT = 1)
• studying at no less than 25 per cent intensity for 2009-10 (NSPFTE09 ≥ 0.25)
• in the HESES09/HEIFES09 population (HESEXCL09/HEFEXCL09 = 0)
• not in core NSP population for 2008-09 (NSPEXCL08 ‡ 0).

Institutions can find more details about the methodology in the provisional allocations and programme guidance.

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33. Why are allocations only 'provisional' at this stage and how likely is it that our allocation will change?

It is likely that each institutions final NSP allocation will change from their provisional allocation for the year 2013-14. A number of factors will cause this. One such factor is the new funding arrangements from 2012-13, which will lead to more student choice. 

We expect some institutions’ new entrant numbers to change substantially between our data collection exercises for 2011 and 2012. We intend to reflect these changes in our NSP calculations and so will use data collected in 2012 to recalculate the 2013-14 allocations in February 2013. These are the latest new-entrant data that are available, collected in December 2012 for HESES12 and in November 2012 for HEIFES12. 

We will also redistribute awards from institutions who opt out of the programme, and incorporate corrections to data where we find differences between HESA/ILR data and the data that we collect.     

For some institutions these variations will be more significant than others. But we expect each institution to understand their situation well enough to anticipate a change from their predicted allocation. The description of the calculation method that we published in the guidance should help institutions make these calculations. 

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34. Why are there differences between the allocation methodology and eligibility criteria?

Broader considerations steer data and funding rules. This means that they may, in some instances, appear to misalign with policy principles set out in the NSP guidance. But there is no significant impact on allocations as a result.

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Payments to institutions 

35. How will we receive payments?

Institutions will receive the government contribution in a single payment in August of each year of the programme.

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36. How do we need to account for these funds within our financial statements?

The National Scholarship Programme is a significant investment of public funds. Institutions will need to account for the government funds delivered through the programme, and their matched funding contribution.

We, on the Government’s behalf, reserve the right to audit participating institutions, if the need arises. We will also ask institutions to report annually on their activity in this area in their widening participation strategic assessments and access agreement monitoring returns.

Institutions should account for NSP funds in accordance with the ‘Statement of Recommended Practice: Accounting for Further and Higher Education’. 

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37. Is money available to cover administration costs?

No, but if institutions accrue any interest on their allocation they are welcome to choose whether they use some or all of this to help them with administration costs.

38. What happens if we make an award to someone who leaves or does not complete their course?

The funding will not be recovered. But OFFA and/or us will want to discuss the most appropriate use of any underspend incurred as a result.

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39. Will HEFCE claw back any underspend?

Not routinely, but we will want to discuss the rollover of funds into subsequent years with institutions.

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40. Will we be required to 'honour' another institution's NSP award if a learner transfers into our institution later in the year?

We hope that institutions will work together to see where they can support the student in some way. But this is not an obligation. Indeed the student may not meet the institution's criteria and there may be no funds available. In such circumstances, we hope that the student will be supported in other ways (for example, through student services) as already happens for learners who transfer in at a later stage.

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41. How can we ensure that the Student Loans Company (SLC) is informed of fee waivers, to ensure the relevant fee loan is not paid?

Institutions will need to inform the SLC directly via the online a Change of Circumstance notification for each student.

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42. Do we have to use our whole allocation or can we return some for other institutions to use?

The funding will not be recovered. However, OFFA and/or HEFCE will want to discuss the most appropriate use of any underspend incurred as a result.

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43. How will the programme be monitored?

We have set out broad guidance in paragraphs 75-80 of the guidance.

Institutions will need to submit two monitoring returns for the 2012-13 allocation. These will be included in the OFFA access agreement and widening participation strategic assessment monitoring returns for 2011-12 and 2012-13.

Institutions will need to submit in-year monitoring in January 2013, and will need to provide an total number of awards delivered in the first term of the academic year and an estimate of the number still to be delivered. The Government requires this so it can report on the progress of the programme to the Secretary of State and other Ministers.

A final monitoring return is to be submitted in January 2014 when the final figures for 2012-13 will be known. In this return we will require information at the individualised level that cannot be collected from other data sources.

Institutions will also be expected to flag NSP recipients on their data returns to HESA or the Data Service.

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44. How will the programme be evaluated?

We commissioned an evaluation of the programme in 2011, which began in October of that year.  

The evaluation has three key elements:

• a review of the set-up and operation of the NSP
• reporting on the continuing set-up and operation of the first year (2012-13)
• the longer-term evaluation delivering both qualitative and quantitative evidence of the operation and effectiveness of the programme over the full three years from 2012-13 to 2014-15.

The consultants, CFE, will contact all institutions participating in the NSP over the course of the three years of the evaluation. We encourage institutions to engage fully with the evaluation so that it can most effectively guide and inform the future development of the programme. 

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