The Student Fees (Qualifying Courses and Persons) Regulations (Northern Ireland) 2006

EXPLANATORY NOTE

(This note is not part of the Regulations)

Article 4 of the Higher Education (Northern Ireland) Order 2005 (“the 2005 Order”) requires the Department to impose a condition on grants given to the governing bodies of higher and further education institutions. This condition requires the governing bodies to secure that the qualifying fees payable in respect of any qualifying course by a qualifying person do not exceed the basic or higher fee amounts applicable to that course. The fee amounts are prescribed by the Student Fees (Amounts) Regulations (Northern Ireland) 2005 S.R. 2005 No. 290.

These Regulations prescribe the qualifying courses and class of qualifying persons by reference to the Education (Student Support) Regulations (Northern Ireland) 2006 (“the Student Support Regulations”). The qualifying courses prescribed by regulation 3 are those courses which are “designated courses” as defined in the Student Support Regulations and provided at institutions in Northern Ireland. The class of qualifying persons prescribed by regulation 4 are those persons who on the first day of the relevant academic year are specified in Part 2 of Schedule 1 to the Student Support Regulations (that is, persons who are eligible for support) other than persons who are not eligible for student support by reason of certain paragraphs of regulation 4 of those Regulations or who already have an honours degree from a United Kingdom institution or from an institution in the Republic of Ireland for which they received support under previous regulations. There is an exception in respect of a previous honours degree for a person who is undertaking a course of initial teacher training or who has obtained the honours degree only as part of a single course they are currently undertaking. Regulation 4 also makes provision in respect of events which may occur during the course of an academic year and bring a person within Part 2 of Schedule 1 to the Student Support Regulations. Regulation 4(7) disapplies specified parts of Part 2 of that Schedule 1 for the purposes of that Regulation.

Article 5 of the 2005 Order requires that in transitional cases students may not be charged more than the basic amount. Regulation 5 provides that end-on courses and single courses, as defined in the Student Support Regulations, are included in the transitional cases.