Question

To ask the Secretary of State for Business, Innovation and Skills, what assessment his Department has made of the level of awareness among potential students of the availability in England of loans for part-time higher education study.

The Government asked Universities UK to undertake a review of part-time study www.universitiesuk.ac.uk/highereducation/Documents/2013/PowerOfPartTime.pdf. This report found some misunderstanding about the new student finance system for part time students. The Department has developed marketing materials aimed at part time students and these are made available through further education colleges as part of the annual Student Finance Tour. Since the new non-means tested part time fee loans were introduced in 2012 the number of students taking out loans has risen from 34,000 in 2012/13 to 55,000 in 2013/14.