Question to the Department for Education:

To ask the Secretary of State for Education, if he will request information from the Vice Chancellor of Sheffield University on the number of scholarships in the Sheffield University Postgraduate Scholarship Scheme that have been awarded to applicants from Northern Ireland in the latest academic year; and if he make a statement.

As autonomous institutions that are independent from government, it is for individual higher education providers to determine the scholarship arrangements they wish to offer for students on taught postgraduate courses. Therefore, it would be inappropriate for the department to make such a request of a particular provider.

The government has taken steps to support people who want to study at this level by introducing a postgraduate master’s loan, and the work of the review of post-18 education and funding will look at how we support people to study at different times in their lives.