The Executive Function

As is the case with any limited company, overall operational control is in the hands of a Company Board. Chaired by Keith Bedell-Pearce, it comprises five non-executive directors, the Chief Executive and the Company Secretary. Representatives from the Department for Education & Skills (DfES) and The Scottish Executive also attend board meetings.

Overseeing the Operational and Support Divisions of the Company is the executive management team of four directors headed by the Chief Executive, Ralph Seymour-Jackson. Reporting directly to the Chief Executive are the vital Strategy and Business Development functions which will take our business forward in new directions over the coming years and will extend SLC beyond its present remit to make best use of our infrastructure and skills.

Operations Directorate

The Operations Directorate efficiently administers the Government's two student loan schemes (the current Student Finance Scheme and the old Mortgage Style Loans Scheme) either directly or in conjunction with the HM Revenue & Customs (previously known as the Inland Revenue), it recovers all loans issued when they become due for repayment. It also disburses the Government's contribution to tuition fees on behalf of students from England and Wales to universities and colleges throughout the UK and pays out some residual grants.

The Directorate is split into three areas:

Customer Services is responsible for ensuring that customers are dealt with sensitively by friendly, highly trained Customer Advisers who handle hundreds of thousands of telephone calls, letters and application forms each year. Their skills ensure that our customers receive the financial support to which they are entitled, as smoothly and efficiently as possible.

Business Services handles the development of a range of new products, operational methods and policies introduced by the UK policy makers every year which need to be integrated into our operations. Close relationships are maintained with our partner organisations (around 200 local award authorities and over 700 Higher Education Institutions) who provide vital data and services in the local communities from where our customers come, or where they choose to study.

Change Management is a new function which is establishing a team to manage and co-ordinate the delivery of project work

Information & Communications Technology (ICT) Directorate

This Directorate consists of two divisions, which ensure that all the Company's requirements in the development and day to day running of Information Technology and other communication systems are fully met. These divisions are Systems Development and Infrastructure.

Together, these divisions ensure that our systems and applications are supported and developed to meet business requirements, delivering highly available, high performance technology solutions.

Recently ICT have successfully delivered a single computer system which links together all 172 local education authorities in England and Wales and supports and allows students from these areas to apply on-line for student financial support. To support this, a new contact centre was opened, which extends our services to 18 hours a day, seven days a week. Another major IT project was the development of software to allow students to receive their first instalment by electronic transfer, rather than by cheque.

Finance & Administration Directorate

As is the case with any organisation the size of SLC, we have a highly sophisticated system to ensure the financial management and administration of the business, itself. This Directorate is split into the distinctly different areas of Financial Services, Corporate Services, Human Resources and Assurance Services.

Additionally within the Finance & Administration Directorate are the Client Services and Collections Division. Borrowers who have not made due repayments are automatically referred to Collections, who help defaulting borrowers to return to repayment status and, where necessary, detect and prevent the payment of loans to fraudulent or ineligible applicants. The Company has a duty to collect repayments on behalf of the UK taxpayer.

Client Services, which was formed as a result of the government's sale of the loans portfolio to the private sector, manages SLC's relations in respect of this area of our business.

The range of other support services within this are self explanatory: Human Resources: Internal Audit: Marketing & Communications: Legal Dept: Facilities Management and many other related corporate functions required to keep the business professionally serviced.

The Student Loans Company, or SLC as it is more familiarly known, is a unique organisation which has grown through troubled times to be assured and confident, able to deliver successful national programmes well beyond the scope of its original remit.