17.—(1) A current system student does not qualify for a fee loan in respect of a designated course if—
(a)he has an honours degree from an institution in the United Kingdom and the exemption in regulation 34(1) or (2) does not apply; or
(b)the designated course is an old flexible postgraduate course for the initial training of teachers.
(2) A current system student does not qualify for a fee loan in respect of an academic year of a designated course that is a bursary year or an Erasmus year.
(3) When assessing an application for support in respect of an academic year of a designated course, the Secretary of State must determine the “standard entitlement”.
(4) The standard entitlement is calculated in accordance with regulation 18, 19 or 20.
(5) When assessing an application for support in respect of an academic year of a designated course, the Secretary of State must allocate a fee loan from the standard entitlement first to the final standard academic year of the course and then to each preceding standard academic year in turn until the standard entitlement is exhausted or a fee loan has been allocated to each standard academic year of the course.
(6) A current system student qualifies for a fee loan in respect of a standard academic year of the designated course if the Secretary of State allocates a fee loan to that year when assessing the application for support for that year.
(7) In addition to the standard entitlement, a current system student who falls within regulation 19 qualifies for a fee loan in respect of the first academic year that he takes of the designated course that is not a bursary year or an Erasmus year if he failed to complete the most recent previous course because of compelling personal reasons.
(8) Where a current system student qualifies for a fee loan under paragraph (7), the Secretary of State must not allocate a fee loan under paragraph (5) to the first academic year that the student takes of the designated course that is not a bursary year or an Erasmus year.
(9) In addition to the standard entitlement, if the Secretary of State determines that the student is repeating an academic year of the designated course because of compelling personal reasons, a current system student qualifies for a fee loan in respect of the year of repeat study provided that the academic year that the student is repeating was a qualifying year of study and the year of repeat study is not a bursary year.
(10) A current system student qualifies for a fee loan in respect of an academic year of a designated course that is a year of repeat study which the student is taking other than for compelling personal reasons if—
(a)the academic year which he is repeating was a qualifying year of study;
(b)the academic year of repeat study is not a bursary year; and
(c)when the academic year of repeat study is added to the number of any other academic years of repeat study that the student has already taken on the current course other than for compelling personal reasons, it does not exceed the number of additional years of support.
(11) In this regulation, the “number of additional years of support” is the number of years which make up the standard entitlement less the number of standard academic years (plus one where the student qualifies for a fee loan under paragraph (7)).
(12) The amount of the fee loan in respect of an academic year is determined in accordance with regulation 21 and may be nil.