Asked by: Daisy Cooper (Liberal Democrat - St Albans)
Question to the Department for Education:
To ask the Secretary of State for Education, whether she plans to increase the number of places available for educational psychology courses at universities in England.
Answered by Josh MacAlister - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department for Education)
The department is investing £21 million to train 400 more educational psychologists over two cohorts who started their studies in 2024 and 2025 as part of the Educational Psychology Funded Training scheme. This is in addition to the £10 million already being invested in the training of more than 200 educational psychologists who began their training in September 2023.
The Higher Education Statistics Agency does not collect information on places available on courses but publishes data on student entrants across UK higher education (HE) providers. This includes data on students entering courses in different subjects, categorised using the HE Classification of Subjects system. Counts of entrants across all subjects from the 2019/20 to 2023/24 academic years are published in Table 52 of HESA’s student data for all UK providers, which are detailed below.
This data was published in January 2026.
Entrants to UK higher education providers studying Educational Psychology (all modes and levels of study) | ||||||
Subject | 2019/20 | 2020/21 | 2021/22 | 2022/23 | 2023/24 | 2024/25 |
Educational Psychology | 645 | 680 | 710 | 755 | 760 | 695 |
HE providers are autonomous institutions independent from government. This means they are responsible for the decisions that they make regarding which courses they deliver.
Asked by: Ben Maguire (Liberal Democrat - North Cornwall)
Question to the Department for Education:
To ask the Secretary of State for Education, what assessment she has made of the effectiveness of the Children and Young Persons Act 1933.
Answered by Josh MacAlister - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department for Education)
The provisions in the Children and Young Persons Act 1933 are kept under review and updated through primary legislation. We are currently seeking to make updates through the Children’s Wellbeing and Schools Bill, including in part II of the act, which makes provision for the employment of children in England and Wales.
Asked by: Alex Sobel (Labour (Co-op) - Leeds Central and Headingley)
Question to the Department for Education:
To ask the Secretary of State for Education, what steps Student Loans Company is taking to ensure that borrowers repaying through PAYE are not issued incorrect repayment demands.
Answered by Josh MacAlister - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department for Education)
UK-based student loan repayments are collected by HMRC through the tax system. Employers deduct repayments for employees with a student loan when their earnings are above the relevant student loan repayment threshold. Employers will pass the collected repayments to HMRC, and HMRC pass details of the repayments to the Student Loans Company (SLC).
SLC may write to a customer directly if they have been paid more student loan or grant than they are entitled to. Overpayments are due to be repaid separately from the customer’s main student loan balance, and it is right that the SLC seek repayment of such sums.
If a borrower thinks they have received a letter in error, we encourage them to engage with SLC. Customer satisfaction is important to SLC, and they continue to invest in systems to provide customers with a more intuitive and comprehensively digital service. SLC welcomes feedback from customers to further improve their service.
Asked by: Helen Grant (Conservative - Maidstone and Malling)
Question to the Department for Education:
To ask the Secretary of State for Education, whether she intends to publish statutory guidance or a code of practice setting out the duty of care owed by higher education providers to their students.
Answered by Josh MacAlister - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department for Education)
Universities are already required to comply with their duties under the common law and legislation such as the Equality Act 2010, which includes an anticipatory duty to make reasonable adjustments for disabled students, including those with mental health conditions which meet the definition set out within the Equality Act. The government has no plans to publish statutory guidance or a code of practice on a duty of care owed by higher education providers to their students.
Our focus is on ensuring that providers adopt consistent, evidence‑based approaches to student safety and wellbeing by embedding the recommendations of the national review of higher education student suicide deaths and other best practice identified through the Higher Education Mental Health Implementation Taskforce’s wider outputs and sector-led guidance.
Asked by: Lee Anderson (Reform UK - Ashfield)
Question to the Department for Education:
To ask the Secretary of State for Education, if she will make an estimate on the number of international students in British universities she expects to be part of Erasmus scheme exchanges after the UK rejoins the scheme.
Answered by Josh MacAlister - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department for Education)
In 2018/19, there were approximately 31,000 inbound higher education student mobilities via the Erasmus+ Programme. There were approximately 16,000 outbound higher education student mobilities in the same year.
The department expects there will be a greater number of higher education mobilities on reassociation, given the expansion of the programme.
Asked by: Will Forster (Liberal Democrat - Woking)
Question to the Department for Education:
To ask the Secretary of State for Education, how many times have schools been rejected for Condition Improvement Funding in Surrey in the last 20 years.
Answered by Josh MacAlister - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department for Education)
The Condition Improvement Fund (CIF) was established in 2015.
From 2015/16 to 2025/26, 133 CIF-eligible schools and sixth form colleges in Surrey local authority have submitted 991 CIF applications. Of these, 110 schools secured funding for 378 projects.
Further information regarding successful CIF applications, including schools receiving funding, is available for the 2015/16 to 2025/26 rounds and is published on GOV.UK.
Asked by: Will Forster (Liberal Democrat - Woking)
Question to the Department for Education:
To ask the Secretary of State for Education, which schools have received Condition Improvement Funding in Surrey in the last 20 years.
Answered by Josh MacAlister - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department for Education)
The Condition Improvement Fund (CIF) was established in 2015.
From 2015/16 to 2025/26, 133 CIF-eligible schools and sixth form colleges in Surrey local authority have submitted 991 CIF applications. Of these, 110 schools secured funding for 378 projects.
Further information regarding successful CIF applications, including schools receiving funding, is available for the 2015/16 to 2025/26 rounds and is published on GOV.UK.
Asked by: Mike Wood (Conservative - Kingswinford and South Staffordshire)
Question to the Department for Education:
To ask the Secretary of State for Education, further to the Cabinet Office press release entitled Young people from all backgrounds to get opportunity to study abroad as UK-EU deal unlocks Erasmus+, published on 17 December 2025, on what basis was the £570 million a year cost calculated; and what estimate he has made of the potential cost to the public pursue of (a) EU students studying in the UK and (b) UK students studying in the EU.
Answered by Josh MacAlister - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department for Education)
I refer the hon. Member for Kingswinford and South Staffordshire to the answer of 2 February 2026 to Question 107708.
Asked by: Zöe Franklin (Liberal Democrat - Guildford)
Question to the Department for Education:
To ask the Secretary of State for Education, what steps she is taking to ensure that proposals in the SEND White Paper do not reduce the rights of children and young people with special educational needs and disabilities as set out in the Children and Families Act 2014.
Answered by Georgia Gould - Minister of State (Education)
I refer the hon. Member for Guildford to the answer of 20 January 2026 to Question 98569.
Asked by: Daisy Cooper (Liberal Democrat - St Albans)
Question to the Department for Education:
To ask the Secretary of State for Education, how many training places were available for educational psychologists at universities in England in each of the last five years.
Answered by Josh MacAlister - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department for Education)
The department is investing £21 million to train 400 more educational psychologists over two cohorts who started their studies in 2024 and 2025 as part of the Educational Psychology Funded Training scheme. This is in addition to the £10 million already being invested in the training of more than 200 educational psychologists who began their training in September 2023.
The Higher Education Statistics Agency does not collect information on places available on courses but publishes data on student entrants across UK higher education (HE) providers. This includes data on students entering courses in different subjects, categorised using the HE Classification of Subjects system. Counts of entrants across all subjects from the 2019/20 to 2023/24 academic years are published in Table 52 of HESA’s student data for all UK providers, which are detailed below.
This data was published in January 2026.
Entrants to UK higher education providers studying Educational Psychology (all modes and levels of study) | ||||||
Subject | 2019/20 | 2020/21 | 2021/22 | 2022/23 | 2023/24 | 2024/25 |
Educational Psychology | 645 | 680 | 710 | 755 | 760 | 695 |
HE providers are autonomous institutions independent from government. This means they are responsible for the decisions that they make regarding which courses they deliver.