Students Awards Regulations (Northern Ireland) 1997

Explanatory Note

(This note is not part of the Regulations.)

These Regulations, which come into operation on 1st September 1997 revoke and replace, with amendments, the Students Awards (No. 2) Regulations (Northern Ireland) 1996 as amended by the Student Awards (No. 2) (Amendment) Regulations (Northern Ireland) 1996 (“the previous Regulations”).

The Regulations govern the making of awards (“mandatory awards”) which it is the duty of education and library boards to make to specified persons. They do not relate to awards (“discretionary awards”) which, in pursuance of Article 50(3) of the Education and Libraries Order (Northern Ireland) 1986, boards may make under arrangements approved by the Department of Education.

While their text and format do not repeat exactly the provision made in England and Wales, the Regulations maintain parity of awards for Northern Ireland students with their English and Welsh counterparts. They parallel in substance most of the provisions of the Education (Mandatory Awards) Regulations 1997 (S.I. 1997/431) made by the Secretary of State for Education and Employment relating to awards for students in England and Wales.

The principal changes (other than the changes in the rates of fees, grants and allowances) are described as follows:—

The definition of course of initial teacher training has been amended to ensure that a course of initial teacher training, which involves full-time attendance for the purposes of study for teaching practice for 30 weeks a year, continues to be included even if the course involves less than 19 weeks of full-time study.

The definition of a European student has been amended to ensure that all European Community nationals who are not eligible for a full award under regulation 11(2)(a) by virtue of the operation of regulation 7(2) and Schedule 2 are eligible for a fees only award under regulation 11(2)(b) (regulation 3(1)). The provisions relating to European Economic Area migrant workers have been amended to ensure that British migrant workers returning from employment in the EEA have precisely the same entitlement to awards as migrant workers who are nationals of other member States of the EEA (the definition of migrant worker in regulation 3(1) and regulation 7(5).

A student who is irreconcilably estranged from his parents will not have his maintenance grant assessed on the assumption that his parents will make a contribution to his maintenance, and a year without communication between a student and either of his parents will be considered to be irreconcilable estrangement (regulation 3(1) and 3(5)). A student who has moved to Northern Ireland from England, Scotland, Wales, the Channel Islands or the Isle of Man for the purpose of attending a course will not be treated as ordinarily resident in the area of the board where he attends the course, and therefore will not be entitled to an award (regulation 11(3) and (5)).

A course for the Higher National Diploma provided by a publicly funded institution in conjunction with a private institution, or by a private institution, may now be designated for the purposes of the Regulations by the Secretary of State for Education and Employment (regulation 3(1)). The regulation excepting from entitlement students who have previously attended certain courses has been amended to make it clear that in calculating the length of such courses for the purposes of determining whether the exception applies it is the period ordinarily required for the courses' completion which is relevant, rather than the period the student in fact attended the particular course (regulation 9(1)(c)). The regulation has also been amended to provide that attendance at more than one course where an award has been transferred from one course to another shall only be considered to be attendance at the most recent course, the duration of which includes the time spent on the first course or courses and the time ordinarily required for the completion of the most recent course (regulation 9(1)(c)).

An additional exception to entitlement has been added, so that a student who is not settled in the United Kingdom within the meaning of the Immigration Act 1971 at the beginning of the first year of the course in question will not be entitled to an award (Schedule 2, Part II paragraph 2(a)). Settlement is defined in the Immigration Act as being ordinarily resident in the United Kingdom without being subject under immigration laws to any restriction on the period for which the person in question may stay. This new exception does not apply to European Community students or to European Economic Area migrant workers, their spouses or children.

Restrictions on the transfer of awards after the first 16 months of a course which applied when the course to which a student wished to transfer his award would have taken longer to complete than his original course would have taken to complete have been removed (Schedule 4 paragraph (1)). Instead when an award is transferred in such circumstances payments of fees and maintenance will be suspended immediately for a period which represents the increased length of time which the student will require to complete the course. After the period of suspension payments will resume until the end of the course (regulation 19(7) to (14)).

Provision has been made to disregard incapacity benefit paid to a student in calculating his income for the purposes of determining his entitlement to maintenance grant (Schedule 8, Part I paragraph 1(1)(k)).

The provisions concerning sandwich courses have been amended so that all courses consisting of alternate periods of study and periods of industrial, professional or commercial experience associated with full-time study, paid or unpaid, are treated as sandwich courses (Schedule 10, paragraph 1(1)). Courses involving certain types of unpaid service will still not attract the reduction in maintenance payments normally applicable to sandwich courses, as a year including periods of such service do not fall within the definition of “sandwich year”. However, such courses now attract a reduction in fee payments in the circumstances referred to in Schedule 6, paragraph (a)(vii). Further, the minimum requirement of full-time study for an average of not less than 19 weeks in each year of a course will apply to all courses involving a period of industrial, professional or commercial experience associated with full-time study. The provisions do not apply to courses of initial teacher training.

Regulation 16, which provides for the reduction of maintenance payments where teacher training courses are not full-time, has been amended so that it only applies in years where there is less than 30 weeks' full-time attendance for the purposes of study or teaching practice. Provision has been made so that half fees are payable in respect of any course of initial teacher training where the periods of full-time study are in aggregate less than 10 weeks, whether or not attendance over the year has been part-time, full-time or partly part-time and partly full-time (sub-paragraph (iii) of Schedule 6).