We are part of the Scottish Government and are responsible to Scottish Ministers. Our purpose is to deal with support for eligible Scottish domiciled students on courses of higher education throughout the United Kingdom by:
- Dealing with the Students' Allowances Scheme, the Postgraduate Students' Allowances Scheme (PSAS) and the Nursing and Midwifery Students Bursary Scheme (NMSB) and applications for student loans;
- Making arrangements for the collection of the Graduate Endowment;
- Providing resources to the Student Loans Company and distributing Discretionary Funds and Childcare Funds to Scottish universities and colleges; and
- Maintaining a Register of Educational Endowments.
We are the largest awards processing body in the UK and expect to deal with over 130,000 applications in 2008-2009.
Below are our main service target for 2008-2009. They are currently under review and may change during the year:-
- Process 50% of applications and issue an award notice within 12 days of receipt; another 25% within 14 days and the remaining 25% within 21 days.
- Reply to 90% of written enquiries and e-mails within 14 days of receipt and the other 10% within 21 days.
- Wherever possible, have the first instalment of any bursary or supplementary grants that apply available for you at the start of the first term.
- Pay future instalments straight into your bank account on the 7th of each month.
- Pay tuition fees (if appropriate) on time and straight to the institution on your behalf.
- Let you know as soon as possible if we have paid you too much student support.
- Carry out a yearly survey of customers' opinions on the levels of service we provide and publish the results in our annual report.
- Update this page regularly with details of processing times and statistics (see below).
Application Processing Statistics
We aim to process all correctly completed applications within 21 days of receipt. Please contact us if you do not receive an Award Notice within 28 days of sending us your application. If you know your student reference number, you can track the progress of your application using our on-line enquiry service on this website.
Receipt of application forms
As at 21 July 2008, we have received 60,003 applications.
There are 54,316 applications for undergraduate support. We have also received 1,039 applications for postgraduate support and 4,647 for nursing bursaries.
Processing of application forms
As at 21 July 2008, we have processed 55,781 applications, that is, 92.9% of all received so far. We are currently processing most applications within 3 days of receipt.
Please follow our guidance carefully when completing your form and make sure that you send with it copies of all the documents we need. If there are omissions or errors in your application, we may have to return it to you for correction, resulting in your Award Notice being delayed.