Higher Education (Fee Limits and Student Support) (England) (Coronavirus) (Revocation) Regulations 2020

Lord Forsyth of Drumlean Excerpts

Thursday 29th October 2020 Grand Committee

[Lord Forsyth of Drumlean (Con) [V]]

My Lords, I am most grateful to the Minister for explaining the regulations, which are clearly required, but I found myself very much in agreement with the noble Baroness, Lady Garden: students are being given a rough deal. I am disappointed that the Government are not using their regulatory powers to reduce the amount of fees that students are expected to pay. Many of them are having lectures online, and many are required to stay in accommodation because of Covid and are not able to go home, while those who can go home find that they are still required to pay the rent. Although some institutions have offered relief to take account of that, that is no good to the half a million or so students who are in private accommodation.

I suggest to my noble friend the Minister that she consider the recommendations included in the report of the Economic Affairs Committee—which I chair—entitled, Treating Students Fairly, which highlighted that all students from the moment they start their courses are expected to pay interest on the loans they take out to cover their fees. The interest rate charged is the rate of inflation plus 3%, yet the Government are currently borrowing money on a 10-year basis at 0.1%. This is an absolute rip-off. Cannot the Government at the very least cut the rate of interest on student loans to that at which they borrow money or, even better, go back to the previous situation in which students were not required to pay interest at all until they had graduated from their courses?

I also ask my noble friend to consider allowing students to repeat a year at no cost. Many students, particularly those who have no access to practical university experience, might prefer to take a year out and come back. Many of them, of course, are no longer able to find jobs in bars and restaurants to supplement their income. They are having a very bad time, and I do not see anything coming from the Government that recognises it. After all, they are not able to claim universal credit or housing benefit. It is true that some universities have hardship funds, but they are completely inadequate to the scale of the problem being faced.

My noble friend has obviously been thinking hard about protecting the universities as institutions. Could we think a little harder about protecting the students, who are having a terrible time? It is a terrible time induced by a policy which is about protecting the elderly. Young people are seen to be less at risk from the consequences of Covid, but they are taking the brunt of the consequences of the measures being used to combat it.