Question to the Department for Education:

To ask the Secretary of State for Education, what steps her Department is taking to increase public awareness of the required parental contributions when accessing student loans.

Guidance on ‘Understanding Student Living Costs’ from the Student Loans Company is available on GOV.UK and reviewed on a regular basis. More information on this guidance can be found here: https://www.gov.uk/guidance/understanding-student-living-costs. This guidance makes it clear that students are expected to make up the difference between the maintenance loan amount available to them and their total living costs.

Students supplement their living costs support through a variety of means, including parental support, part-time employment, or savings. Students’ living costs vary widely, according to their individual circumstances and where they study and reside, so it is not possible to provide a single figure for any parental contribution.

Students can also find more information about some of the alternative sources of funding, and guidance on how to budget for university, at Student Space here: https://studentspace.org.uk/.