7.—(1) The power of the Department to impose conditions under paragraph (3) of Article 5 of the Further Education Order in relation to any grants, loans or other payments made by the Department under that Article to the governing body of an institution of further education includes power to impose a condition requiring the governing body to secure that, in respect of the relevant academic year, no fees are payable to the institution by any specified class of persons in respect of any specified matters in connection with their attending courses of any specified description.
(2) The power of the Department to impose conditions under—
(a)paragraph (2) of Article 66 of the 1986 Order; or
(b)paragraph (1) of Article 30 of the [1993 NI 12.] Education (Northern Ireland) Order 1993,
in relation to any grants made by the Department under that paragraph to the governing body of an institution includes power to impose a condition requiring the governing body to secure that, in respect of the relevant academic year, the fees payable to the institution by any prescribed class of persons in connection with their attending courses of any prescribed description are equal to the prescribed amount.
(3) In paragraph (2) “the prescribed amount”, in relation to any such class of persons attending courses of any such description, means such amount as may be prescribed for the time being by virtue of Article 3(2)(b) as the maximum amount of any grant available for the relevant academic year in respect of fees payable by such persons in connection with their attending such courses.
(4) A condition under paragraph (1) or (2) shall impose, in the event of a failure by the governing body to comply with the requirement specified in that paragraph, such further financial requirements on that body as may be specified, which may include requirements relating to the repayment, with or without interest, of the whole or part of any sums received by it in respect of the grant, loan or other payment in question.
(5) No condition under paragraph (1) or (2) shall apply in relation to any fees which are payable by students not having such connection with the United Kingdom or any part of it as may be prescribed.
(6) The Department shall not exercise the power to prescribe descriptions of courses under paragraph (2) in such a way as to discriminate—
(a)in relation to courses of initial teacher training, between different courses on the basis of the subjects in which such training is given; or
(b)in relation to other courses, between different courses at the same or a comparable level on the basis of the areas of study or research to which they relate.
(7) In this Article—
“course”, where it appears in paragraph (2) or (3), does not include any part-time or postgraduate course other than a course of initial teacher training;
“the relevant academic year”, in relation to a course, means the academic year applicable to the course which begins at the same time as, or during, the period in respect of which the grants, loans or other payments to which the relevant condition under paragraph (1) or (2) relates are made;
“specified” means specified by the Department in a condition imposed by it under paragraph (1) or (2), as the case may be.
(8) Where—
(a)a condition is imposed under paragraph (1) or (2) in connection with any grants, loans or other payments made to the governing body of an institution; and
(b)those payments are to any extent so made in respect of persons attending a course which is provided in whole or part by any other institution,
then, for the purposes of this Article, fees payable by such persons to the other institution shall be regarded as fees payable by them to the first-mentioned institution.
(9) Nothing in the Further Education Order so far as it imposes any prohibition or other requirement in relation to the imposition of conditions by the Department shall apply to any condition under paragraph (1) imposed by the Department.