Education (Student Support) Regulations (Northern Ireland) 1998

Certificate of eligibility

5.—(1) A person shall demonstrate that he is an eligible student by completing an eligibility questionnaire and by providing such supporting evidence of eligibility as the Department may require.

(2) Without prejudice to the generality of paragraph (1) an eligible student shall produce—

(a) if he was born in the United Kingdom, a certificate issued by the appropriate authority showing the date of his birth;

(b) if he was born outside the United Kingdom, a valid passport, unless he is a refugee or does not hold one, and in any event a letter or other document issued by a responsible person which contains particulars of his date, place and country of birth and his names at birth;

(c) a United Kingdom national insurance card, or some other document issued or sent to the student by a government department or agency or by an employer which refers to his national insurance number, unless he does not have such a number; and

(d) evidence from the institution providing the designated course he is attending that he has commenced attending that course and of the duration of that course.

(3) The Department may take such steps and make such inquiries as it considers necessary to determine whether any student is an eligible student.

(4) If the Department considers that a person is an eligible student it shall issue to the student an eligibility form for the student to complete.

(5) An eligibility form shall include the following particulars—

(a) the full name of the student and his or her sex;

(b) the student’s United Kingdom national insurance number, unless he does not have one;

(c) the student’s most recent student loan account number, if any;

(d) if the student’s full name at birth was different from the above, his full name at birth;

(e) the country in which the student was born;

(f) if the student was born in the United Kingdom, the place where his birth certificate was issued;

(g) the student’s date of birth;

(h) the student’s home address and telephone number and any term-time address and telephone number if it is different and in such a case an indication to which address correspondence should be sent;

(i) whether the student was, on the first day of the designated course he is attending, ordinarily resident for the purposes of these Regulations in England and Wales, Scotland or Northern Ireland;

(j) the student’s bank or building society sort code and account number, if any;

(k) the student’s age on the first day of the designated course he is attending;

(l) the date on which the student expects to complete the course;

(m) whether the course is—

(i) for a Postgraduate Certificate of Education or Art Teacher’s Certificate;

(ii) an accelerated course; or

(iii) another designated course;

(n) the name of the institution which provides the designated course the student is attending and, if any part of the course is provided by an institution other than that institution, and indication to that effect;

(o) the number of academic years of the designated course the student is attending, whether he is in the first, second, third or other of those years on the date the certificate is signed, and whether the academic years of the course begin in the autumn, the winter, the spring or the summer; and

(p) the matriculation or student number assigned to the student by the institution providing the designated course he is attending.

(6) The student shall sign a declaration on the eligibility form that—

(a) the particulars given in the eligibility form are correct to the best of his knowledge and belief; and

(b) he will notify the Department of any change in them.

(7) If the Department is satisfied that the particulars in the eligibilty form are correct and that the student is an eligible student it shall certify those matters to the best of its knowledge and belief and also certify the amount of loan to which it considers the student is entitled (“a certficate of eligibility”).

(8) The Department shall issue to each student whose eligibility it has certified under paragraph (7) an application form (“a loan application form”) which identifies the certificate of eligibility relating to that student.