Students Awards Regulations (Northern Ireland) 1999

Explanatory Note

(This note is not part of the Regulations.)

These Regulations, which come into operation on 1st September 1999, revoke and replace, with amendments the Students Awards Regulations (Northern Ireland) 1997 as amended by the Students Awards (Amendment) Regulations (Northern Ireland) 1998 (“the previous Regulations”).

The changes of substance made by these Regulations other than the changes in the rates of fees, grants and allowances are described in the following paragraphs.

Article 50(1) and (2) of the Education and Libraries (Northern Ireland) Order 1986, under which the Regulations are made, was repealed on 1st January 1999 with transitional and saving provisions for courses beginning before 1st September 1999, and certain other courses. These Regulations provide for payments under awards made under previous regulations for courses beginning before 1st September 1998, and certain other courses (“old awards”) but do not provide for payments under awards made under the 1998 Regulations for courses beginning on or after 1st September 1998 and before 1st September 1999 (“transitional awards”). See the definition of “award” in regulation 3 and regulation 6(2). Payments under transitional awards, which provide for the first year of a course only, will continue to be made under the 1998 Regulations: see the saving provision in regulation 6(5). Awards for courses beginning after 1st September 1999 can be made under these Regulations, but only in certain caseswhere students have started a course directly after completing a course which began before 1st September 1998 (regulation 7(2)).

The purpose of these Regulations is therefore limited to ensuring that students who began their course before 1st September 1998 and certain other students, continue to receive awards and payments under the Students Awards Regulations until the end of their courses. The number of students entitled to awards and payments will decline, until after a number of years there will be no students receiving support under the 1986 Order which will then be spent. Students who began their courses on or after 1st September 1998, subject to the exceptions mentioned, were entitled to one year of support pursuant to transitional awards, and they, together with students beginning courses on or after 1st September 1999, are now entitled to financial support by way of loan and grant under regulations made under Articles 3 and 8(4) of the Student Support (Northern Ireland) Order 1998.

The rates of grant have been increased in line with forecast inflation. Because one year transitional awards will continue to be dealt with under the 1998 Regulations the new Regulations provide one level of support, equivalent to the level of support for old awards in the 1998 Regulations, and all reference to transitional awards and different rates of support for transitional awards has been removed (regulations 11 and 12 and Schedule 6).

A number of minor changes have been made. Rates of grant for students studying abroad have been reduced from three bands to two bands (definition of “high cost” and “higher cost” countries in regulation 3). The existing practice of treating medical and architecture courses, which often result in two successive first degrees being conferred, as one overall course leading to a first degree has been confirmed (regulation 4(5)).

Regulation 17 in the 1998 Regulations provided that a student who received income by way of scholarship, bursary or studentship, or from an employer who released him from his duties to attend the course, was not entitled to payments in respect of any year when that income exceeded the amount of payments he would otherwise be entitled to. This provision has been revoked. Instead provision is now made for such income to be taken account of as part of the student’s resources in determining the means tested element of grants for maintenance and in addition in determining the amount of the otherwise non-means tested grant for fees (regulation 11(1)(a) and grant for disabled students and students who have left care (regulation 12(2) and paragraphs 9 and 10 of Schedule 6.) This is to ensure consistency with the approach adopted in Regulations under Article 3 of the Student Support Order 1998.

The definition of fees for which grant is available has been amended so that it is consistent with the definition in Article 2 of the Student Support Order 1998, which definition is used in regulations under Article 3 of that Order (Schedule 5).

The provision for disabled students has not been significantly altered, but has been moved from regulation 11 to paragraph 9 of Schedule 6. New provision has been made for students who have left care (paragraph 10 of Schedule 6). Such students may now be entitled to grant for the long vacation, recognising additional living costs when students do not have a family home to return to.

The calculation of student’s resources has not been altered significantly, but income which should be disregarded has been expressed by reference to defined UK sources of income (paragraph 1(a) of Schedule 7). Provision has been made for assessing the income of European students in paragraph 1(3) of Schedule 7.

The requirement that a parental contribution be assessed does not apply in the case of a student who has left care and the circumstances in which a student is treated as having left care have been amended. Any student who had previously been in care for three months, at any time from the age of 16 until he begins the course and who has not returned to his parents during that period or subsequently, benefits from this treatment (paragraph 3(c) of Schedule 7).