Student payment (Form S)

Find out the steps you need to take to pay a student stipend and recover the UCL fee (Form S).

Things to do first

• Ensure that the student has been registered on the Portico system.
• Ensure that the student enters their UK bank details into Portico (this speeds up payment).
• Check that the account code(s) have sufficient budget to support the request (stipend and fee). Otherwise it will be rejected.
• IF the funding is from a Research Council training grant complete or update the UKRI JeS student details record.

Cancellation or amendment of the request

• Email or call the relevant approvers (see below) to cancel a request if they have not already approved it.
• If the request has already been approved contact Student Funding (Registry) to cancel.
• To amend a request, cancel the previous request (as above) and resubmit a revised Form S for the required amount or fee recovery.

Approvers 

• Research Council Training grants: Award Services Studentships team
• Other externally funded Research grants: Award Services Post-Award team relevant to your department/Faculty
• UCL funds: Faculty Finance Officers
• Student Funding (Registry), email: sfostaffenquiries@ucl.ac.uk or telephone x30004
• Ensure you have access to the Fund Management part of the Portico system. If not then discuss with Student Systems.

Payments

Postgraduate research students are paid monthly in advance through the production of a Form S (Portico system financial management).

• Any overpayment due to withdrawal, interruption, or administrative error should be recovered from the student by the department and repaid to the funder account at the earliest opportunity
• Any unrecoverable funds must be repaid by the host department to the funder account
• To enable a student to be paid the department should request the payment of the student stipend and recovery of the UCL fee using the Portico system and the announced account codes and within budget
• The system has funds checking in place so it is important to ensure that the requisite funds exist in the account codes stated, in particular, that the fee TASK has sufficient funding available. If there are insufficient funds the request will be rejected by the system.
• Award Services staff may also reject the request themselves where they believe the budget will be exceeded
• A student can be paid from more than one account code on the submission and you should manage the associated accounts supporting the student(s) appropriately to enable maximum use of the funds available within the terms and conditions of the award or contract
• Where there have been recruitment difficulties or indeed a student has left a training grant then no costs following that date are allowable until a replacement student is in place
• Training Grants cannot be used as soft funds for such things as Department Bursaries or to offset Biological Service costs - just because funds are left in the budget
• Legitimate costs are those for the named student(s) on the grant, the associated UCL studentship fee, and the direct costs of the named students.

UKRI students

For Research Council students funded by Training Grants, you must create and submit a UKRI Je-S record for the student prior to the submission of the Portico payment request. 

The staff in Award Services have been instructed not to authorise payment without the student details being submitted to the relevant council. This record must be maintained throughout the lifetime of the studentship to reflect changes, using 'Studentship detail Batch Update'.

Administrator best practice

• Guidance is provided on how to enter Form S (pdf) (Studentship payment bids) onto Portico.
• Where the Department staff believe that a significant delay in the payment to the student may be incurred and the student suffers undue hardship then the department should arrange payment for that quarter via its own funds and notify Award Services accordingly.

The Portico payment request should be reduced by the same amount and submitted once the issues have been resolved. The interim payment can then be transferred into the Research Grant or Training Grant where appropriate.