#2026/108Wales Student Support Amendment Regulations 2026
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The regulations change how some courses are treated for Welsh student support from academic years starting on or after 1 August 2026. They allow Welsh Ministers, when designating a course for student support, to decide that the course should be treated as being provided by an “ordinary provider” for tuition fee loan purposes. The practical effect is on maximum tuition fee loan amounts. Certain students on listed courses that began before 1 August 2026 are protected, meaning their maximum loan is calculated as if their course were provided by an ordinary provider. This affects students, course providers, and awarding bodies involved in the specified courses.
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Key Changes
- Allows Welsh Ministers to treat designated courses as provided by an ordinary provider for tuition fee loan calculations
- Updates the definition of ordinary provider in the student support rules
- Protects students on specified courses that began before 1 August 2026 by calculating their maximum tuition fee loan on the ordinary provider basis
Obligations
What this law requires
Apply the amended student support rules only when providing support to a student for an academic year beginning on or after 1 August 2026.
For academic years beginning on or after 1 August 2026, student support administrators must apply the amended tuition fee loan rules when assessing support for students under the Education (Student Support) (Wales) Regulations 2018.
When designating a course under regulation 8, Welsh Ministers may specify that the course is to be treated as provided by an ordinary provider for the purpose of calculating the tuition fee loan under regulation 40(2)(c)(i).
When Welsh Ministers designate a course under regulation 8 and specify that it is to be treated as provided by an ordinary provider, tuition fee loan calculations must treat that course as provided by an ordinary provider for the purposes of regulation 40(2)(c)(i).
For a protected student undertaking a course that satisfies Schedule 2A, the maximum tuition fee loan amount must be calculated as if the course were provided by an ordinary provider.