Question to the Department for Education:

To ask the Secretary of State for Education, pursuant to the Answer of 22 October 2021 to Question 57294, on Students: Finance, what data he holds on the number of applicants who began studies outside the UK before becoming refugees and have subsequently only been granted funding by the Student Loans Company for the years of their course that are deemed to be uncompleted; and whether he has plans to enable funding to be made available to those applicants for full courses at higher education institutions in the UK.

The department is not able to answer the requirements in this request around the number of applicants who began studies outside the UK before becoming refugees. The Student Loans Company asks students "Have you started an undergraduate course of Higher Education in any country since leaving school?" on the application form but does not log which country the applicant studied in so cannot confirm if the studies were started outside the UK.

Generally, fee support on full-time courses is available for the duration of the course plus one extra year if needed. If a student has previous full-time higher education (HE) study at a publicly funded provider, whether within the UK or overseas, those years will normally be deducted from the number of years of fee support available for a subsequent full-time course. These rules exist to enable us to target resources more effectively at students who have not had a chance to experience HE. The rules do not apply to maintenance support.

In addition to the standard entitlement, if a student did not complete their most recent previous course because of compelling personal reasons, an additional year of fee support may be granted in respect of the first year that the student takes of a new course. This applies equally to persons who have been granted international protection by the Home Office such as refugees and, from 1 August 2022 those relocated to the UK under the Afghan relocation and assistance policy, who will be eligible for immediate student support without needing to demonstrate three years ordinary residence in the UK and Islands before the start of the course.

There are no current plans to changes this system.