ILR specification: 2020 to 2021

Student Support Number: Field

Definition

This field holds the Student Support Number assigned by Student Support Award Authorities (Northern Ireland Library Boards, Welsh Local Authorities, Student Awards Agency for Scotland (SAAS) and Student Loans Company (SLC)). It is the student identifier that is used in student finance communications between the Student Support Award Authorities, institutions and SLC.

Reason Required

To enable robust linking between HESA data and the student finance data held by SLC.

Schema Definitions

XML Entity Name
SSN
Field Length
13
Data type
RestrictedString
Minimum occurrences
0
Maximum occurrences
1

Collection Requirements

  • Collected for all aims

Valid Entries

The SSN is 13 characters long. The first four characters are alpha. The next 8 characters are numeric. The last character is alpha, which is a check character. For example Student Support Number = WADM46891352A

Notes

  • For full guidance about this field, please refer to the HESA specification.

  • Where a student may be in possession of multiple SSNs from different loan providers, the SSN returned in this field should be the one relating to the loan made for the payment of tuition fees.

  • It is not expected that the same SSN will appear in multiple instances unless it is held by a student who has changed course.