Higher Education Student Support

Robert Halfon Excerpts

Thursday 25th January 2024 Written Statements

[The Minister for Skills, Apprenticeships and Higher Education (Robert Halfon)]

I am announcing details of student fees and support arrangements for higher education students undertaking a course of study in the 2024-25 academic year starting on 1 August 2024, together with further help to address cost of living pressures in 2023-24. Also, I am confirming that eligibility for student finance is being extended to children granted indefinite leave to remain where their parent has been granted ILR as a victim of domestic abuse or as a bereaved partner.

The Government recognise the additional cost of living pressures that have arisen this year and that are impacting students. We have already made £276 million of student premium and mental health funding available for the 2023-24 academic year to support successful outcomes for students, including disadvantaged students.

We are now making a further £10 million of one-off support available to support student mental health and hardship funding. This funding will complement the help that universities are providing through their own bursary, scholarship and hardship support schemes.

In addition, we are investing hundreds of millions of pounds of additional funding over the three-year period from 2022-23 to 2024-25 to support high-quality teaching and facilities, including in science and engineering, subjects that support the NHS, and degree apprenticeships. This includes the largest increase in Government funding for the HE sector to support students and teaching in more than a decade.

I can confirm today that maximum tuition fees for undergraduate students for the 2024-25 academic year in England will be maintained at the levels that apply in the 2023-24 academic year. This is the seventh year in succession that fees have been frozen. This means that the maximum level of tuition fees for a standard full-time course will remain at £9,250 for the 2024-25 academic year, to deliver better value for students and to keep the cost of higher education down.

Thanks to the progress we have made on the Prime Minister’s five priorities, inflation has more than halved. Maximum undergraduate loans for living costs will be increased by forecast inflation, 2.5%, in 2024-25. The same increase will apply to the maximum disabled students’ allowance for students with disabilities undertaking full-time and part-time undergraduate courses in 2024-25. Maximum grants for students with child or adult dependants who are attending full-time undergraduate courses will also increase by 2.5% in 2024-25.

We are also increasing support for students undertaking postgraduate courses in 2024-25. Maximum loans for students starting master’s degree and doctoral degree courses from 1 August 2024 onwards will be increased by 2.5% in 2024-25. The same increase will apply to the maximum disabled students’ allowance for postgraduate students with disabilities in 2024-25.

The 2.5% increase follows standard procedure to base annual increases in support on forecasted inflation. We have continued to increase maximum loans and grants for living costs each year, with the most support for students from the lowest income families. Decisions on student finance have had to be taken to ensure that the system remains financially sustainable and the costs of higher education are shared fairly between students and taxpayers, not all of whom have benefited from going to university.

I am also announcing today a number of other changes to eligibility rules for student support and home fee status that will benefit certain vulnerable groups of students.

Students who have been granted indefinite leave to enter as a victim of domestic abuse, and their children who are granted ILE, will also qualify for student support and home fee status.

I am also confirming today that home fee status and tuition fee support is being extended to British citizens born in the Chagos islands, and their direct descendants who are also British citizens.

In addition, students who gain settled status part way through their course will qualify for student support and home fee status for the remainder of their course.

Looking forward to the 2025-26 academic year, the new lifelong learning entitlement will create a single funding system to help students to pay for college or university courses, and train, retrain and upskill flexibly over their working lives. In tandem, the Government will continue to recognise the importance of loans for living costs and targeted grants to support access and participation in higher education.

That is why, under the LLE, the Government will extend the scope of loans for living costs, and grants for students with adult and child dependants, making this support available for all designated full-time and part-time courses and modules that require in-person attendance. This will ensure that people will be able to develop new skills and gain new qualifications at a time that is right for them.

Further details of the student support package for 2024-25 are set out in the document available as an online attachment: https://questions-statements.parliament.uk/written-statements/detail/2024-01-25/HCWS209

I am today laying regulations implementing changes to student finance support for undergraduates and post- graduates for 2024-25. These regulations will be subject to parliamentary procedure.

[HCWS209]