Excellent and concise post by MajorYaw. There's just one thing I'd correct:
You must attend Hythe branch to go through the finances.
When I sorted out my finance for the course, I dealt with most of it on the phone and the forms were forwarded to my local HSBC branch for signing. I'm fairly sure they can still do this - just ask when you speak to them on the phone.
Don't, however, go to your local branch and try and sort out the Professional Studies Loan through them - they won't have heard about the arrangement and will more than likely laugh in your face when you ask for £60k unsecured (pretty much double the normal unsecured limit.)