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Further regulatory functions

Charging undergraduate fees: developing fee and access plans

An institution that wants its full-time undergraduate courses to be automatically designated for higher education student support must submit a fee and access plan to us. This process will be in place until the new regulatory system is established.

If the plan is accepted, the institution could charge up to the maximum regulated fee limit and students studying those courses at that institution can apply for a tuition fee loan up to that amount.

Eligible institutions must:

  • be located in Wales
  • provide higher education
  • be a charity

On application an institution must provide information about its financial viability, the arrangements for organising and managing its financial affairs, and the quality of education it provides or is provided on its behalf.

A fee and access plan must set out the objectives of an institution as they relate to equality of opportunity and the promotion of higher education. We expect institutions to contact us before applying for the first time.

If you currently have a fee and access plan, it will remain in place until 31 July 2027. However, if providers wish for their courses to be eligible for student support, they will need to register. From that point, fee and access plans will no longer be part of the regulatory system. They will be replaced by a broader set of registration and funding requirements that apply across the tertiary education sector. For higher education providers with a fee and access plan, from 1 August 2026 the majority of conditions will come into effect. However, conditions relating to the Fee Limits, and Equality of Opportunity, will not come into place until 31 July 2027, with these areas covered by fee and access plans until that point.

Guidance on producing a fee and access plan

Full information about how to apply for a fee and access plan can be found in the Higher Education Funding Council for Wales’s (HEFCW) fee and access plan guidance, which continues to be applicable until Medr produces its own.

This guidance was informed by guidance to HEFCW from the Welsh Government.

For more information contact [email protected].

More information on quality requirements for fee and access plans is available on the quality and continuous improvement page.

Statement of Intervention Powers

For Conditions of Registration or Conditions of Funding, we will have powers to intervene to address non-compliance. A statement of our intervention functions specified in the Tertiary Education and Research (Wales) Act 2022 (TERA) is set out within our Statement of Intervention Powers, which will be published at the start of April.

For providers of higher education who register with Medr, most regulatory requirements under the Higher Education (Wales) Act 2015 (‘The 2015 Act’) will cease on 31 July 2026, to be replaced by the first tranche of new register-linked TERA 2022 powers. However, as not all of the new powers will be introduced at the same time, the 2026/27 academic year will be a transitional year in which TERA 2022 registration conditions will be in place alongside certain remaining fee and access plan regulatory requirements under the 2015 Act. The 2015 Act powers, which will remain in place for 2026/27, in respect of interventions on student fees and general requirements of approved fee and access plans are set out in the 2015 Act Statement of Intervention.

UK providers whose courses are not automatically designated for Welsh student support must have their courses specifically designated for student support.

Medr administers the process for assessing specific course applications, giving assurance to Welsh Ministers, who decide whether a course or courses can be designated.

The Welsh Government’s Policy and a list of those courses currently specifically designated for student support are on the Student Finance Wales website.

Applicants that have not previously had courses specifically designated for student support should contact [email protected] before submitting an application.

For higher education providers seeking the specific designation of courses, please see our application guidance. This document should be read in conjunction with the Welsh Government Process for Specific Designation and providers should complete both Annex B and Annex C.

Please contact [email protected] before submitting an application.

For higher education providers who currently have specific designation of courses for Welsh domiciled students, Medr monitors designation on annual basis. This is informed by our monitoring guidance and should be read in conjunction with the Welsh Government Process for Specific Designation. Every year, Medr will contact those providers and request them to verify an existing course list, and complete our monitoring form.

For School Centred Initial Teacher Training providers seeking the specific designation of courses, please see our application guidance. This document should be read in conjunction with the Welsh Government Process for Specific Designation and providers should complete both Annex B and Annex C.

Please contact [email protected] before submitting an application.

For higher education providers who currently have specific designation of courses for Welsh domiciled students, Medr monitors designation on annual basis. This is informed by our monitoring guidance and should be read in conjunction with the Welsh Government Process for Specific Designation. Every year, Medr will contact those providers and request them to verify an existing course list, and complete our monitoring form.

A course is only automatically designated (and attracts statutory student support) if the institution or other provider meets the requirements set out in student support regulations. The Welsh Government has provided information explaining the conditions for a higher education course to attract student support on its website. Only those institutions in Wales with an approved fee and access plan have their full time higher education courses automatically designated for student support.

Medr has statutory oversight of the fee and access plan function. For more information on fee and access plans, contact  [email protected].

As this was administered by the Higher Education Funding Council for Wales (HEFCW) until 31 July 2024, HEFCW’s most recent guidance still applies.

Providers with current fee and access plans, which are available on their websites, are:

Aberystwyth University

Bangor University

Cardiff University

Cardiff Metropolitan University

Coleg Cambria

Grŵp Llandrillo Menai

Grŵp NPTC Group

Swansea University

University of South Wales

University of Wales Trinity Saint David

Wrexham University

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