Guidance

Residential Bursary Fund data return, 2025 to 2026: guidance for completing the digital form

Updated 1 October 2026

Applies to England

Introduction

This guidance sets out how to complete the digital collection form for the Residential Bursary Fund (RBF).

Use this form to report how you used your RBF allocation provided by the Department for Education (DfE) in the 2025 to 2026 academic year (1 September 2025 to 31 August 2026).

RBF funding is intended to provide financial help towards the accommodation costs of students attending one of the designated institutions delivering specialist provision.

This data return will be analysed and used to reconcile RBF funding. We will recover any unspent funds, as they cannot be carried forward to future years.

More information on RBF is given in the Residential Bursary Fund guidance.

Who this guidance is for

This guidance is for institutions who received RBF funding in the 2025 to 2026 academic year.

When to complete your submission

The deadline to complete and submit your form is 23 October 2026 at 5pm.

You can amend your submissions up until the deadline.

We do not grant any extensions to the deadline.

Accessing the form

Access the RBF 2025 to 2026 data collection digital form to complete your return.

Before you start

Before you start the submission process, ensure you have:

• a DfE Sign-in account
• the number of students awarded RBF for each sector subject area (for example, agriculture and environmental conservation)
• the reasons for supporting students in subjects other than designated specialist provision
• the total RBF spent on accommodation support
• the number of students awarded RBF living in term-time lodgings off campus
• the RBF spent on any offsite travel costs and the number of students receiving RBF for travel costs
• the total spent on administering RBF
• reasons for any overspend

DfE Sign-in

Sign in to your DfE Sign-in account

Follow these steps to access your DfE Sign-in account:

1. Access the RBF data collection digital form and select ‘Start now’. When prompted, enter your DfE Sign-in credentials (your username and password) for authentication.

2. If multi-factor authentication (MFA) is enabled on your account, you will need to enter a verification code to sign in. To send the verification email with the code you need to click on ‘Email code to [your email address]’ on the ‘Verify your identity page’ you were directed to after entering your email and password.

3. After clicking on ‘Email code to [your email address]’ you will progress to the next page ‘Enter code’. Copy the code from the verification email and paste it into the box. Then select ‘Verify’.

4. Choose the organisation you are completing the form for – this is only required if your account is linked to several organisations.

5. The next page will display the details we hold about the institution you selected when you signed in. This will show the name, address and unique identifier of the institution, as well as the name and email address of the person who signed into the form.

6. If these details are correct, select ‘Continue’ to go to the next page.

7. If you believe these details are incorrect, contact the Customer Help Portal and we will investigate. You can still proceed with your submission.

To complete the form, your DfE Sign-in account must be connected to the organisation you are completing the form for.

You do not need to add any services in DfE Sign-in. It is used only for authentication.

If you do not have a DfE Sign-in account

If you do not have a DfE Sign-in account, you will need to create one by completing the following steps:

1. Access the DfE Sign-in page and select ‘Create a DfE Sign-in account’.

2. Enter your email address. You must use a valid business email address that contains your name – we are unable to accept generic emails, such as ‘admin’ or ‘info’. You are also unable to use a personal email address.

3. We will send you an email to verify your email address. Copy the code from this email and paste it into the box on the verification page. 

4. Create a memorable password that is a minimum of 8 characters and contains 3 characters out of: lowercase characters, uppercase characters, numbers, symbols. Enter your given name and surname.

5. Sign in using your new credentials. Request your MFA verification email by clicking on ‘Email code to [your email address]’ on the ‘Verify your identity’ page.

6. We will send you a MFA email to verify your identity. Copy the code from this email and paste it into the box on the verification page.

7. Follow the next step instructions outlined in the next section, ‘Adding an organisation to your DfE Sign-in account’.

Adding an organisation to your DfE Sign-in account

To add a new organisation to your DfE Sign-in account, complete the following steps:

1. Sign in to your DfE Sign-in account.
2. Select ‘Organisations’ from the tab at the top of the page.
3. Select ‘Request access to an organisation’ from the ‘Related actions’ on the right-hand side of the page.
4. Enter the unique reference number (URN) or UK provider reference number (UKPRN) of the organisation you would like to add.
5. Select the organisation from search results.
6. Select ‘Confirm’.

Your request will be sent to an approver within your organisation. If you do not already have an approver your request will be actioned by the DfE Sign-in support team.

Once your request to access an organisation has been approved, you can follow the steps outlined under the Sign in to your DfE Sign-in account section to complete the form.

You may have noticed the term ‘approver’ when setting up your account. An approver is someone at your organisation responsible for controlling who has access to DfE Sign-in and the services within the system. It is usually an administrator or a senior manager. For security reasons, you will need the authorisation of one of your organisation’s approvers before you can access the form.

If you need further assistance

For problems using the DfE Sign-in service, use our DfE Sign-in help service to request assistance. When raising a support request, select ‘Other’.

If you are having problems accessing the form, use our Customer Help Portal.

Completing the form

Access the RBF data collection digital form and select ‘Start now’. 

Once authenticated through DfE Sign-in, you will find a ‘Save and continue’ button on each page that will take you to the next page. If you sign out or leave the form open for an extended period before submitting, you can resume your submission when you sign back in.

Once you have submitted your form, you will be advised of the next steps and will receive an email confirmation of your submission with a link to download a PDF copy of your submission. This link will expire after 6 months, so we recommend you download a copy as soon as possible.

You can edit and resubmit your form until the submission deadline.

Selecting ‘Save and continue’ on each page will take you through the form.

You must click ‘Submit’ on the final form page to send your completed data return to us.

Your details

We will show you the information we hold about your organisation when you sign in to the form.

Your RBF funding for the 2025 to 2026 academic year

This read only page shows your RBF for the 2025 to 2026 academic year.

If you have any questions about your allocated funding, contact us via the Customer Help Portal. You can still continue to complete your data return.

Students awarded RBF

For any students awarded RBF:

• select ‘No’ if you did not support any students with RBF. You will then continue to submit a nil return
• select ‘Yes’ if students were awarded RBF and continue to complete the form

Specialist sector subject area

RBF is intended to support students who are participating in a designated specialist subject area.

To help us monitor the use of RBF and ensure it is in line with the policy intention, complete all that apply to give data on the number of students receiving RBF in each of the sector subject areas.

Only count students that received RBF from 1 September 2025 to 31 August 2026 (inclusive).

Your answer must be based on the core subject aim the student is enrolled on, and the reason why they were awarded RBF.

Enter zero (0) where a sector subject area does not apply.

Other sector subject areas (2 pages)

Enter how many students were awarded RBF in other sector subject areas, such as digital technology. This helps us to monitor the use of RBF and ensure it is in line with the policy intention.

If you have supported students in other areas, we will ask you a follow-up question to explain why you deemed the use of RBF appropriate.

Accommodation support

Enter your total RBF expenditure on accommodation support from 1 September 2025 to 31 August 2026. 

Enter zero (0) where there is a nil spend on accommodation support.

Off-campus travel costs

If you indicate that all, or some, of your RBF supported students living off campus, then you will be asked questions about their travel costs.

This includes the number of RBF students living off campus, and travel costs to and from the off-site accommodation.

We expect a value no greater than 15% of your total RBF allocation for travel costs. This will be capped at £25,000.

Administration spend

Enter the amount you have spent on administration of the RBF from 1 September 2025 to 31 August 2026.

We expect a value no greater than 5% of your total RBF allocation.

Total RBF spend

This read only page will show your total RBF expenditure in the 2025 to 2026 academic year. This is a combination of your input of accommodation support spend, travel costs and administration costs.

If your spend exceeds your allocation, you will be asked to explain why on the next page.

Declarations page

Once you have completed all relevant data entries you must complete the declarations before you can submit your form.

You will not be able to submit your form without completing this section fully.

Submission summary

The summary page allows you to check your answers before submitting the form. You can change your answers using the ‘Change’ link that appears next to each data entry.

You can also save this summary by selecting ‘Save summary as PDF’ before you submit.

We cannot accept this PDF summary of your answers as proof of submission. You must still submit the form.

You must select ‘Submit’ at the bottom of this page and you will receive a unique reference number for your submission to be processed.

Confirmation

The final page confirms your form has been successfully submitted. You will receive a unique reference number, followed by an explanation of what happens next.

You will receive an email confirming successful submission of your claim. This will contain a link to download a PDF of your submission, which is valid for 6 months from the date of your submission.

Make a note of your unique reference number, as we will not include this information in your confirmation email.

Amending your submission

You can make changes to the form and resubmit until 5pm on 23 October 2026. To do this, you will need to sign back in and resubmit your form.

We cannot grant any extensions to the deadline.

If you make a second submission, we will take the details of the most recently submitted form and disregard previous versions.

You will receive a new unique submission reference for an amended submission.

Enquiries

If you have read this guidance and have questions, contact us via the Customer Help Portal.

Feedback

We are committed to enhancing our user experience and improving our digital forms. 

We welcome and encourage user feedback.