These Regulations provide for financial support for students who are ordinarily resident in Wales taking designated higher education courses in respect of academic years beginning on or after 1 September 2007. They consolidate, with some changes, the Assembly Learning Grants and Loans (Higher Education) (Wales) Regulations 2006, as amended by the Assembly Learning Grants and Loans (Higher Education) (Wales) (Amendment) Regulations 2006;
The Regulations revoke those 2006 Regulations and amending Regulations. Regulation 3 sets out the extent of the revocation. Changes of substance made in these Regulations (other than rates of grants and loans) are highlighted below.
The distinction between old system eligible students and new system eligible students (introduced by the 2006 Regulations) in relation to financial support to students for full-time courses is retained (regulation 2(1)).
Old system eligible students are eligible students attending courses that started before 1st September 2006 and gap-year students starting courses before 1 September 2007, and certain other categories of student. The following grants and loans are available to old system eligible subject to the specified conditions —
· grant for fees (Part 4);
· fee contribution loan (regulation 20);
· grant for disabled students' living costs (regulation 24);
· grant for dependants (regulations 25 to 30);
· grant for travel (regulation 31);
· higher education grant (regulation 35); and
· loans for living costs (Part 6).
A new system eligible student is an eligible student who starts their course on or after 1 September 2006 and who is not an old system eligible student. The following grants and loans are available to new system eligible students, subject to the specified conditions —
· new fee grants (regulation 18);
· fee loans (regulations 21 and 22);
· grant for disabled students' living costs (regulation 24);
· grant for dependants (regulations 25 to 30);
· grant for travel (regulation 31);
· maintenance grant (regulation 36);
· special support grant (regulation 37); and
· loans for living costs (Part 6).
To qualify for financial support a student must be an “eligible student”. Broadly, a person is an eligible student if he or she falls within one of the categories listed in Part 2 of Schedule 1 and the eligibility provisions in Part 2 of the Regulations. The Regulations apply to students ordinarily resident in Wales wherever they study on a designated course. For the purposes of these Regulations a person who is ordinarily resident in Wales, England, Scotland, Northern Ireland, the Channel Islands or the Isle of Man as a result of having moved from one of those areas for the purpose of undertaking his or her course is considered ordinarily resident in the place from which that person moved (Schedule 1, paragraph 1(3)). An eligible student must also satisfy any requirements elsewhere in the Regulations; in particular the specific requirements applicable to each type of financial support. As to the “new” fee grants for new system eligible students referred to in the list above, see below.
Support is only available under the Regulations in respect of “designated” courses within the meaning of regulations 5, 63 and Schedule 2.
The rules on previous study are unchanged (regulations 6 and 7). In general, students starting courses on or after 1 September 2006 are eligible for fee support and maintenance grants for the ordinary length of their course plus one additional year. The number of years of support available is reduced by the number of years of previously supported higher education. For students who started their course before 1 September 2006 support will be available for the ordinary length of their course. The National Assembly for Wales will be able to extend eligibility where there are compelling personal reasons for doing so in respect of the student concerned. Maintenance loans are available throughout the period of eligibility, which terminates at the end of the academic year in which the student completes the designated course. Students attending courses for the initial training of teachers lasting less than two years are exempt from the previous study rules.
Students who have an honours degree qualification from a higher education institution in the UK will not ordinarily be eligible for support under the Regulations, but students undertaking a second degree course which leads to professional qualification as a social worker, medical doctor, dentist, veterinary surgeon, architect, landscape architect, landscape designer, town planner or town and country planner will still be eligible for a maintenance loan.
Part 3 of the Regulations makes provision for applications for support (regulation 9), time limits for applications (regulation 10) and regulation 11 and Schedule 3 specify the information that must be provided by applicants.
Chapter 1 of Part 4 of the Regulations makes provision for students who become eligible during the course of an academic year to qualify for support under Part 4.
Chapter 2 of Part 4 of the Regulations makes provision for grant for fees. From 2007, a new (increased) grant for fees is introduced for new system eligible students (regulation 18). Students who are UK nationals must have been ordinarily resident in Wales for three years prior to the start of the course, but this does not apply to nationals of the EC Member States. The grant applies only to students who start courses at publicly-funded institutions in Wales on or after 1 September 2006. A smaller fee grant continues to be available to old system eligible students.
Chapter 3 of Part 4 makes provision for loans for fees. Regulation 22 introduces a new smaller loan for fees for those students who qualify for the new (increased) fee grant. The maximum loan is £1,225 or £610 in the circumstances specified in regulation 16(3). Regulation 20 continues to provide for fee contribution loans not exceeding £1225 per academic year for old system eligible students in respect of their attendance on designated courses. The limit is £610 in the circumstances specified in regulations 16(3). Regulation 21 continues to provide for a fee loan up to a maximum of £3,070 per academic year for new system eligible students who do not qualify for the new fee grant in respect of fees payable by them in respect of their attendance on designated courses. The limit is £1535 in the circumstances specified in regulation 16(3).
Part 5 makes provision for grants for living costs. The means-tested maintenance and special support grants introduced by the 2006 Regulations are continued. The special grant for students leaving care is no longer available. The grant for childcare is now available for any form of childcare that counts as childcare for tax credits purposes under regulations made under the Tax Credits Act 2002 (including, in particular, childcare in Scotland and Northern Ireland).
Part 6 makes provision for loans for living costs. New system eligible students eligible for a maintenance grant will continue to be eligible for a maintenance loan and up to £1,225 of the grant is paid in substitution for an element of the student loan. Maintenance loan entitlement will continue to be reduced by £1 for every £1 of grant payable up to a maximum of £1,225. One small piece of rationalisation is that a student who attends an overseas institution will be in “category 3” for the purpose of calculating entitlements.
Part 8 and Schedule 4 continue to makes provision for “college fee loans” (introduced by the 2006 amending Regulations). These are loans in respect of the college fees payable by a qualifying student to a college or permanent private hall of the University of Oxford or to a college of the University of Cambridge in connection with attendance of a qualifying student on a qualifying course.
Part 9 and Schedule 5 continue to make provision for the means-testing of students taking designated full-time courses. A contribution from the student is calculated on the basis of household income. The contribution is to be applied to specified grants and loans until it is extinguished against the amount of the particular grants and loans for which the student qualifies.
Part 10 makes provision for payment of grants and loans.
Part 11 makes provision for support for part-time courses.
Part 12 makes provision for postgraduate students with disabilities.