An amending statutory instrument made on 27 October 2026 and laid before Parliament on 29 October 2026 rewrites part of England's student support framework for franchised higher education provision. The Regulations come into force on 19 November 2026, extend to England and Wales, and apply in relation to England only. The instrument is expressly corrective. It was made to deal with defects in three earlier sets of Regulations: the Postgraduate Master's Degree Loans Regulations 2016, the Postgraduate Doctoral Degree Loans Regulations 2018 and the 2026 postgraduate student support amending Regulations. It is also being issued free of charge to known recipients of those earlier instruments. The legislation is therefore not a wholly new scheme, but a repair and consolidation measure with direct consequences for student finance eligibility.
The main change sits in the Lifelong Learning student support rules. The Explanatory Note states that the new Part 2A removes the automatic designation of courses offered by unregistered providers on behalf of registered providers. In practical terms, a course will no longer qualify for student support simply because a registered institution is the lead body in the arrangement. Instead, eligibility turns on the status of the body actually teaching or delivering the course. Before 1 August 2028, there remains a route where the English higher education provider on whose behalf the course is delivered becomes a registered provider. For courses starting on or after 1 August 2028, the route narrows: franchised provision must be delivered by one or more qualifying franchised providers on behalf of a registered provider.
The Regulations then define the new test in detail. A provider counts as a franchised provider where it teaches or delivers all or part of a course to students registered with a registered provider in England and does so on that provider's behalf. A student is treated as a franchised student where more than 50% of the modules, credits or other unit of study, or of the total credit value, is or may be taught by one or more franchised providers. That drafting matters because it looks at the substance of delivery rather than the branding of the course. It also treats subcontracted teaching as teaching by the provider itself, which closes an obvious route around the rule. For universities using layered delivery arrangements, the legal test will focus on who is doing most of the teaching, not only on who awards the qualification.
Student population is the next deciding factor. Under the new Part 2A, the Secretary of State must use Office for Students published data to determine whether an unregistered franchised provider is below the threshold. The default threshold is 300 students, but the figure can be replaced by another number published by the Secretary of State on gov.uk. The Regulations also widen the population counted for that exercise. Full-time, part-time, online, publicly funded and non-funded learners studying at level 4 or above are all brought into scope, whether or not they fall within Schedule 1 to the Fees and Awards Regulations. Apprenticeships and students studying modules or credits only are excluded. Related providers that are group undertakings must be treated as a single provider, which limits the scope for splitting activity across connected entities.
Not every unregistered partner is treated alike. A provider will still qualify if it is a registered provider, a below-threshold unregistered franchised provider, or an exempt franchised provider. The exempt category covers a defined list of public and publicly backed bodies, including schools, academies, further education institutions, local authorities, mayoral combined authorities, integrated care boards, NHS trusts, police and crime commissioners, government departments and the armed forces. For larger private or otherwise unregistered franchise partners, that distinction is the policy point. Once a provider is above the threshold and outside the exempt group, courses delivered through that arrangement can lose designation for student support purposes. Lead providers will therefore need closer oversight of the size, structure and regulatory status of each delivery partner.
The administrative timetable has also been reset. The Regulations replace several references to the academic year with a service year running from 1 August to 31 July. They also create a designation period running from 1 September to 31 July, beginning 11 months before the implementation year, and a calculation reference period beginning 36 months before the start of that implementation year. During each designation period, the Secretary of State must determine the status of any unregistered franchised provider that is not exempt. If the Department cannot calculate the provider's student population from the available Office for Students data, the provider is to be treated as below threshold unless it notifies the Secretary of State that it expects to meet or exceed the threshold in the implementation year. A formal notice of status must then set out the population assessment, whether the provider is below threshold, and whether courses taught by that provider will be designated for student support.
The appeal mechanism is more structured than in the earlier drafting. A provider may appeal a notice of status within one month if it reasonably believes that it is, or will be, exempt during the implementation year, or that it will remain below threshold for that year. If the Secretary of State accepts the case, an updated notice may deem the provider to be a qualifying franchised provider for courses starting in that implementation year. The instrument also introduces a correction year process. Where a provider was treated as below threshold and courses were designated on that basis, but the provider's student population was in fact at or above the threshold at any point between the start of the calculation reference period and the end of the implementation year, the Secretary of State may revoke designation for courses starting in the following service year. That revocation is not automatic: a notice must be issued first, the provider may appeal within one month, and the Secretary of State keeps a discretion to disapply the revocation where the circumstances justify it.
Much of the remainder of the instrument is technical alignment, but it is not merely terminological. The same threshold-based model, the same move from September to August dates, and the same updated appeal drafting are carried across into the Postgraduate Master's Degree Loans Regulations 2016 and the Postgraduate Doctoral Degree Loans Regulations 2018. The 2026 postgraduate transitional Regulations are also rewritten so that the definitions, timing rules and appeal routes match the new structure. There are two transition points that providers will need to note. First, a franchised provider that applied to join the Office for Students register before 1 July 2026, met the OfS application criteria before 1 September 2027, and is still awaiting a final decision by that date will be treated as a qualifying franchised provider for the service year beginning 1 August 2028. Secondly, until 31 July 2029, an additional appeal route remains available for providers seeking to show that they were below threshold during the relevant appeal reference period. The Explanatory Note adds that the full impact assessment sits with S.I. 2026/459 rather than this instrument, which means providers will need to read the amending text and the earlier assessment together to judge the operational effect.