Welsh Ministers have made the Education (Student Finance) (Miscellaneous Amendments) (Wales) Regulations 2026. The instrument applies to courses beginning on or after 1 August 2026 and makes targeted amendments to student support, fee status and eligibility categories across undergraduate and postgraduate schemes. ([gov.wales](https://www.gov.wales/changes-student-support-and-fee-protection-regulations-2026-2027-sfwin-072025-html))
According to Welsh Government’s Student Finance Wales information notice (SFWIN 07/2025), the 2026 instrument consolidates technical fixes and policy clarifications: new eligibility routes for certain family members, alignment with recent Home Office immigration changes, removal of obsolete provisions, and tidying of legacy regulations. Providers should apply the changes to admissions and funding decisions for 2026/27 entrants. ([gov.wales](https://www.gov.wales/changes-student-support-and-fee-protection-regulations-2026-2027-sfwin-072025-html))
Eligibility is extended to include bereaved partners of Gurkha and Hong Kong military unit veterans discharged before 1 July 1997, and their children. This reflects the Home Office’s Appendix Gurkha and Hong Kong military unit veteran route (AF(GHK)), now embedded in the Immigration Rules, ensuring access to home fee status and support where residence tests are met. ([gov.wales](https://www.gov.wales/changes-student-support-and-fee-protection-regulations-2026-2027-sfwin-072025-html))
The regulations also update references for protected Ukrainian nationals to reflect the Ukraine Permission Extension Scheme and the closure of earlier routes, with cross‑references to Appendix Ukraine Scheme. The Home Office’s HC 334 changes opened the extension scheme and set out decision rules such as UKR 36.1, which Welsh rules now recognise. ([gov.uk](https://www.gov.uk/guidance/immigration-rules/immigration-rules-appendix-ukraine-scheme?utm_source=openai))
For fee protection, the ‘first‑day’ presence test is clarified. A person in a settled category need only meet the status and residency conditions on the day the first term of the course actually begins, rather than on the first day of a standardised academic year date. This reduces ambiguity for providers assessing eligibility. ([gov.wales](https://www.gov.wales/changes-student-support-and-fee-protection-regulations-2026-2027-sfwin-072025-html))
Legacy ‘college fee loan’ provisions are removed, including Oxbridge‑specific college fee loans, reflecting that institutions now levy single standard tuition fees rather than separate college charges. This streamlines support rules and removes an obsolete product. ([gov.wales](https://www.gov.wales/changes-student-support-and-fee-protection-regulations-2026-2027-sfwin-072025-html))
On living‑cost support, the instrument confirms that students who receive an NHS means‑tested healthcare bursary, or a universal healthcare bursary calculated by reference to income, are not eligible for the additional ‘extended year’ maintenance loan top‑up. Providers should check bursary status before awarding the uplift under regulation 57. ([gov.wales](https://www.gov.wales/changes-student-support-and-fee-protection-regulations-2026-2027-sfwin-072025-html))
Care‑experienced students gain a clearer entitlement: Grants for Dependants will be calculated so that eligible care leavers receive the maximum amount, removing the need for household income evidence for this element and aligning with existing non‑means‑tested maintenance support. ([gov.wales](https://www.gov.wales/changes-student-support-and-fee-protection-regulations-2026-2027-sfwin-072025-html))
Postgraduate safeguards are aligned with undergraduate rules: eligibility for support terminates where a person ceases to have extant leave as a protected partner (or as the child of such a person) immediately before the relevant day. This ensures consistency across doctoral and master’s loan regulations. ([gov.wales](https://www.gov.wales/changes-student-support-and-fee-protection-regulations-2026-2027-sfwin-072025-html))
The instrument undertakes housekeeping: revoking the 2014 European University Institute regulations and the 2021 EU Exit amendments linked to them; updating references to the Netherlands Antilles to the ‘Caribbean part of the Kingdom of the Netherlands’; and removing pandemic‑era coronavirus text. These changes modernise the code and avoid misinterpretation. ([gov.wales](https://www.gov.wales/changes-student-support-and-fee-protection-regulations-2026-2027-sfwin-072025-html))