Welsh Ministers have made the Education (Student Finance) (Miscellaneous Amendments) (Wales) Regulations 2026. The instrument was made on 13 January 2026, comes into force on 5 February 2026, and applies to academic years beginning on or after 1 August 2026. It amends the 2007 Fees and Awards Regulations, the 2015 Qualifying Courses Regulations, and the 2017, 2018 and 2019 student support schemes to adjust eligibility, tidy obsolete provisions and clarify assessment points.
Protected partner definitions are broadened across the schemes. Individuals granted leave as bereaved partners of Gurkha or Hong Kong military unit veterans discharged before 1 July 1997 are now in scope, whether leave was granted under Appendix Gurkha from 5 October 2023 or, if granted before that date, outside the Immigration Rules. The change brings these partners and their children within home fee status, Welsh fee limits and student support.
Schedules to the 2017 and 2018 Regulations are updated so these protected partners and their children appear explicitly in the eligible student categories. Providers and Student Finance Wales should ensure casework systems recognise the new cases to avoid unnecessary referrals and delays in award decisions.
For postgraduate support, the Regulations add a termination clause. A person who qualified solely by virtue of protected partner status (or as the child of such a person) ceases to be an eligible student for Master’s or Doctoral loans immediately before the relevant day if their leave has expired and no further leave has been granted. Institutions should confirm immigration status at reassessment points.
The definition of “protected Ukrainian national” is updated to include the Ukraine Permission Extension Scheme alongside the Family and Homes for Ukraine routes. The ordinary residence test is aligned so the person must be ordinarily resident in the United Kingdom and the Islands and must not have ceased to be so resident. The wording is made consistent across undergraduate and postgraduate schemes.
The 2007 Fees and Awards Regulations and the 2015 Qualifying Courses Regulations clarify when category tests apply. For a student starting a course, status is assessed on the day the first term of the first academic year actually begins; otherwise it is assessed on the first day of each academic year. This removes ambiguity for continuing students and late course start dates.
Obsolete Oxbridge college fee loan provisions are removed from the 2017 and 2018 Regulations, including all related definitions, time‑limit references and index entries. There will be no separate Oxbridge college fee loan mechanism; support continues via standard tuition fee and maintenance entitlements.
Interactions with healthcare bursaries are tightened. Students who receive a healthcare bursary or universal healthcare bursary calculated by reference to income are excluded from increased maximums and extended‑year maintenance uplifts, even where income assessment produces a nil award. For sandwich courses, extended‑year uplifts will not apply where taught weeks total fewer than ten unless placements constitute specified unpaid service.
Unpaid service is defined to include placements with NHS bodies (including Local Health Boards), Scottish and Northern Irish health bodies, local authorities delivering children’s, health or welfare functions, approved voluntary organisations, prisons or probation services, and research in higher education institutions in the UK or, where part of the course, overseas institutions. This standardises the basis for enhanced maintenance in public‑service settings.
Care leavers will now receive the aggregated maximum amount of Grants for Dependants. The amendment to the 2018 Regulations avoids pro‑rating where criteria are met and ensures consistent, predictable support for this group.
Location‑based exceptions are refined for serving armed forces personnel and close relatives. Students undertaking distance learning outside the UK, or not physically in Wales on the first day of the academic year due to service, will not lose eligibility for tuition, maintenance or dependent grants on that basis.
The instrument also delivers a general tidy‑up. Support for study at the European University Institute is revoked, coronavirus‑specific provisions are removed across undergraduate and postgraduate schemes, references to a discontinued Northern Ireland health body are deleted, and the definition of overseas territories is updated to refer to the Caribbean part of the Kingdom of the Netherlands (Aruba, Bonaire, Curaçao, Saba, Sint Eustatius and Sint Maarten).
Operationally, providers and Student Finance Wales should update guidance, decision trees and evidence lists ahead of 1 August 2026. Caseworkers should be prepared to assess protected partners of Gurkha veterans and protected Ukrainian nationals under the revised wording, verify immigration status for postgraduate reassessments, apply the care leaver uplift for dependants grants, and enforce the new healthcare‑bursary overlaps.
Key dates are explicit. The Regulations were made on 13 January 2026, come into force on 5 February 2026, and apply to academic years starting on or after 1 August 2026, including applications processed before that date for entry in 2026/27.