These Regulations prescribe the qualifying courses and qualifying persons for the purposes of section 28 of the Higher Education Act 2004 (“the 2004 Act”).
Section 27 of the 2004 Act enables the Welsh Ministers to impose a condition on grants to the Higher Education Funding Council for Wales (“the Council”), requiring the Council to impose a condition under section 28 of the 2004 Act on financial support given to the governing bodies of relevant institutions. A condition under section 28 requires the governing body of a relevant institution to secure that the 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 basic and higher fee amounts are prescribed by the Student Fees (Amounts) (Wales) Regulations 2011.
The qualifying courses prescribed by regulation 3 are those courses which are designated under section 22 of the Teaching and Higher Education Act 1998 provided by publicly-funded institutions in Wales where the first academic year of the course begins on or after 1 September 2012. There is an exception for “end-on courses” where the original course began before 1 September 2012.
The qualifying persons prescribed by regulation 4 are those persons who, on the first day of the relevant academic year, fall within the Schedule, save for those persons who are not eligible for support under the Assembly Learning Grants and Loans (Higher Education) (Wales) Regulations 2011 (S.I. 2011/148 (W.32)) by reason of certain paragraphs of regulation 4 of those Regulations, or who already have an honours degree from a UK institution. There is an exception for those students who transfer to a qualifying course from a course which began before 1 September 2012. There are exceptions in respect of a previous honours degree for persons undertaking courses of initial teacher training, who have obtained the honours degree only as part of a single course they are currently undertaking or where the course leads to a qualification as a social worker, medical doctor, dentist, veterinary surgeon or architect.
The regulatory impact assessment applicable to these Regulations is obtainable from the Welsh Assembly Government at Cathays Park, Cardiff, CF10 3NQ.