To match an exact phrase, use quotation marks around the search term. eg. "Parliamentary Estate". Use "OR" or "AND" as link words to form more complex queries.


View sample alert

Keep yourself up-to-date with the latest developments by exploring our subscription options to receive notifications direct to your inbox

Written Question
Students: Cost of Living
Thursday 21st March 2024

Asked by: Stephen Morgan (Labour - Portsmouth South)

Question to the Department for Education:

To ask the Secretary of State for Education, what steps her Department is taking to help support postgraduate students with the cost of living.

Answered by Robert Halfon

The government introduced postgraduate loans as a contribution to the cost of postgraduate level study.

The maximum loan available has continued to increase each year, by 2.8% for the current 2023/24 academic year, with a further 2.5% increase announced for 2024/25.

Decisions on student finance have had to be taken to ensure the system remains financially sustainable and the costs of higher education (HE) are shared fairly between students and taxpayers, not all of whom have benefited from going to university.

Overall, support to households to help with the high cost of living is worth £94 billion over 2022/23 to 2024/25, an average of £3,300 per UK household. The government believes this will ease the pressure on family budgets and will in turn enable many families to provide additional support to their children in HE to help them meet increased living costs.

Students in private rented accommodation who are provided energy through a commercial entity may also benefit from the Energy Bills Discount Scheme (EBDS) which provides a baseline discount on energy bills for non-domestic users locked into high fixed price tariffs. Any non-domestic user who benefits from the EBDS must ensure the benefit is passed through to the end user, such as students in private rented accommodation. The EBDS runs for 12 months from 1 April 2023 to 31 March 2024.


Written Question
Special Educational Needs: Hertfordshire
Thursday 21st March 2024

Asked by: Daisy Cooper (Liberal Democrat - St Albans)

Question to the Department for Education:

To ask the Secretary of State for Education, pursuant to the Answer of 13 March to Question 17451 on Special Educational Needs: Finance, whether Hertfordshire County Council was one of the local authorities from which her Department received a high-quality application through the most recent special free schools application round.

Answered by Damian Hinds - Minister of State (Education)

The department received a total of 85 applications from local authorities to open a special free school in a very competitive application round, including an application from Hertfordshire County Council.

The department plans to select a further 15 successful applications. This will remain a competitive process. This approach means we can move quickly to appoint trusts to run these schools.

The department plans to announce those local authorities that have been successful for the additional special free schools later this year.


Written Question
Teachers: Training
Friday 15th March 2024

Asked by: Dan Carden (Labour - Liverpool, Walton)

Question to the Department for Education:

To ask the Secretary of State for Education, pursuant to the Answer of 24 January 2024 to Question 9921 on Teachers: Training, if he will make an assessment of the potential impact of trends in the cost of living on teachers in training.

Answered by Damian Hinds - Minister of State (Education)

The government recognises that cost of living pressures impact trainee teachers but has taken steps to increase the financial support available. All trainee teachers on tuition fee-funded initial teacher training (ITT) routes can apply for a tuition fee loan and a partially means-tested loan for living costs. Additional means-tested student finance is also available depending on individual circumstances, such as the Childcare Grant for students with child dependants.

The government has continued to increase maximum loans, grants for living and other costs each year. Maximum support has been increased by 2.8% for the current 2023/24 academic year, with a further 2.5% increase announced for 2024/25. The highest levels of support are targeted at students from the lowest-income families.

The department has also frozen maximum tuition fees for the 2023/24 and 2024/25 academic years to deliver better value for students and to keep the cost of higher education under control. By the 2024/25 academic year, maximum fees will have been frozen for 7 years.

The department has 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.

The department is 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 universities are providing through their own bursary, scholarship and hardship support schemes.

The department announced an ITT financial incentives package worth up to £196 million for the 2024/25 ITT recruitment cycle, a £15 million increase on the last cycle. This includes bursaries worth up to £28,000 tax-free and scholarships worth up £30,000 tax-free, to encourage talented trainees to key subjects such as mathematics, physics, chemistry and computing.

Last year, the department accepted in full the School Teachers’ Review Body’s recommendations for the 2023/24 pay award for teachers and leaders. This included an increase to the unqualified teacher pay range for salaried trainee teachers and a minimum £30,000 starting salary for school teachers in all regions of the country, with a pay award of up to 7.1% for new teachers outside London.


Written Question
Overseas Students: Ukraine
Friday 15th March 2024

Asked by: Tanmanjeet Singh Dhesi (Labour - Slough)

Question to the Department for Education:

To ask the Secretary of State for Education, what recent steps he has taken to support Ukrainian students in the UK.

Answered by Robert Halfon

The department has extended access to higher education (HE) student finance, home fee status and further education 19+ funding to those who are granted leave under one of the three Ukraine Schemes introduced by the Home Office: the Homes for Ukraine Sponsorship Scheme, the Ukraine Family Scheme and the Ukraine Extension Scheme. Following the recent Home Office announcement on the Ukraine Permission Extension Scheme, the department will be amending the student finance regulations for the 2024/25 academic year so that those granted leave under the new scheme can access support on the same basis as persons with leave under one of the existing Ukraine schemes.

Access to student support is crucial in enabling Ukrainians to attend education to improve their skills and enhance their ability to contribute to the UK, or to the rebuilding of their home country.

The department has also worked closely with the Ukrainian government and UK HE Sector to help facilitate Ukrainian HE entrance exams for students from Ukraine.


Written Question
Overseas Students: Ukraine
Monday 11th March 2024

Asked by: Wendy Chamberlain (Liberal Democrat - North East Fife)

Question to the Department for Education:

To ask the Secretary of State for Education, pursuant to the Answer of 1 March 2024 to Question 15845, if she will issue guidance to (a) students granted leave under the Ukraine Permission Extension scheme and (b) education providers on the (i) intended residency and (ii) status of students on the new Ukraine Permission Extension scheme set to open in early 2025; and what the status of those people will be after the closure of that scheme.

Answered by Robert Halfon

I am pleased to confirm that the department will be making changes to the student finance regulations following the recent announcement on the Ukraine Permission Extension Scheme. These will ensure that, from the 2024/25 academic year, students who are granted leave under this scheme will be able to access Higher Education (HE) student support, home fee status, Advanced Learner Loans and Further Education 19+ funding on the same basis as persons with leave under one of the existing Ukraine schemes.

Persons granted leave under this Scheme will continue to be eligible for student support and home fee status for as long as they continue to be granted further leave to remain in the UK.


Written Question
Overseas Students: Ukraine
Monday 11th March 2024

Asked by: Wendy Chamberlain (Liberal Democrat - North East Fife)

Question to the Department for Education:

To ask the Secretary of State for Education, whether residents under the Ukraine Permission Extension Scheme will be considered Home Students for the purposes of university and college fees and student finance.

Answered by Robert Halfon

I am pleased to confirm that the department will be making changes to the student finance regulations following the recent announcement on the Ukraine Permission Extension Scheme. These will ensure that, from the 2024/25 academic year, students who are granted leave under this scheme will be able to access Higher Education (HE) student support, home fee status, Advanced Learner Loans and Further Education 19+ funding on the same basis as persons with leave under one of the existing Ukraine schemes.

Persons granted leave under this Scheme will continue to be eligible for student support and home fee status for as long as they continue to be granted further leave to remain in the UK.


Written Question
Students: Cost of Living
Wednesday 6th March 2024

Asked by: Stephen Morgan (Labour - Portsmouth South)

Question to the Department for Education:

To ask the Secretary of State for Education, what steps her Department is taking to support students with the cost of living.

Answered by Robert Halfon

The department has frozen maximum tuition fees for the 2023/24 and 2024/25 academic years to deliver better value for students. By the 2024/25 academic year, maximum fees will have been frozen for 7 years.

The government has continued to increase maximum loans and grants for living and other costs each year. Maximum support has been increased by 2.8% for the current 2023/24 academic year, with a further 2.5% increase announced for 2024/25.

Students awarded a loan for living costs for the 2023/24 academic year that is lower than the maximum, and whose household income for the tax year 2023/24 has dropped by at least 15% compared to the income provided for their original assessment can apply for their entitlement to be reassessed.

Decisions on student finance have had to be taken to ensure the system remains financially sustainable and the costs of HE are shared fairly between students and taxpayers, not all of whom have benefited from going to university.

The government recognises the additional cost of living pressures that have arisen this year and that are impacting students. The department has 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.

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

Further the department is investing hundreds of millions of pounds in 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 over a decade.

That is why the department has asked the Office for Students (OfS) to maintain student premium and mental health funding for the 2023/24 financial year at the same levels as the previous year and to ensure providers are aware they can draw on the Student Premium to support students in financial hardship. The department will continue to liaise with the OfS on the impacts of cost-of-living pressures.

Between 2022/23 to 2024/25, government will have provided support worth £104 billion, an average of £3,700 per household, to help families throughout the UK with the cost-of-living including to meet increased household energy costs. This will have eased some of the pressure on family budgets and so will in turn enabled many families to provide additional support to their children in HE to help them meet increased living costs.


Written Question
Financial Services: Education
Monday 19th February 2024

Asked by: Lord Cruddas (Conservative - Life peer)

Question to the Department for Education:

To ask His Majesty's Government what research they have carried out on how other countries have addressed the introduction of financial literacy into their schools, in particular in Denmark, Norway and Sweden; and whether they have any plans to follow those models.

Answered by Baroness Barran - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department for Education)

The government has not carried out its own research into how other countries have addressed the introduction of financial literacy in their schools.

The curriculum in England already includes compulsory financial education within the national curriculum for mathematics at key stages 1 to 4, and citizenship at key stages 3 and 4. Primary schools can choose to teach citizenship at key stages 1 and 2, using non-statutory programmes of study.

Evidence from the 2018 Programme for International Student Assessment suggests there is a strong correlation between performance in financial literacy and performance in mathematics; and a positive correlation between financial literacy performance and learning finance-related terms at school. This evidence is available on the GOV.UK website here: https://www.oecd.org/education/pisa-2018-results-volume-iv-48ebd1ba-en.htm.

Since 2014, the government has transformed the way mathematics is taught in schools through the introduction of mastery pedagogy based on top performing East Asian countries. Mastery aims to ensure that pupils secure the deep knowledge and understanding of mathematics which provides the underlying knowledge and financial skills to make important financial decisions. The Maths Hubs’ Teaching for Mastery programme aims to reach 75% of primary schools and 65% of secondary schools by 2025.

Oak National Academy is also developing free, optional and adaptable resources for schools. Oak has published its initial mathematics resources, with the full curriculum available by this autumn. As part of this, Oak is exploring including additional lessons in real life mathematics. Secondary citizenship resources will become available from autumn 2024 and will be complete by autumn 2025.

The department continues to work closely with HM Treasury and the Money and Pensions Service, to support their efforts to coordinate the work of organisations involved in delivering the goals set out in the National Strategy for Financial Wellbeing 2020. This includes monitoring the evidence base for financial education to understand what works and what further support schools may need.


Written Question
Students: Loans
Wednesday 31st January 2024

Asked by: Mike Amesbury (Labour - Weaver Vale)

Question to the Department for Education:

To ask the Secretary of State for Education, whether she has made a recent assessment of the potential merits of increasing maximum student loan amounts in line with inflation.

Answered by Robert Halfon

The department has frozen maximum tuition fees for the 2023/24 and 2024/25 academic years to deliver better value for students, and to keep the cost of higher education (HE) under control. By 2024/25, maximum fees will have been frozen for seven years.

The government recognises the additional cost-of-living pressures that have arisen this year and that are impacting students. The department has therefore 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.

The government has increased loans for living costs each year for students in England, with a 2.8% increase for the current 2023/24 academic year, and a further 2.5% increase announced for the 2024/25 academic year. Decisions on student finance have had to be taken to ensure the system remains financially sustainable and the costs of HE are shared fairly between students and taxpayers, not all of whom have benefited from going to university.

Students awarded a loan for living costs for the 2023/24 academic year that is lower than the maximum, and whose household income has dropped by at least 15% compared to the income provided for their original assessment can apply for their entitlement to be reassessed.

The department is 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 universities are providing through their own bursary, scholarship and hardship support schemes.


Written Question
Students: Incomes
Thursday 25th January 2024

Asked by: Claire Hanna (Social Democratic & Labour Party - Belfast South)

Question to the Department for Education:

To ask the Secretary of State for Education, whether her Department has made an assessment of the potential merits of a Basic Student Income.

Answered by Robert Halfon

The government does not have plans to introduce a non-means tested basic income for students in England.

Decisions on student finance have to be taken to ensure the system remains financially sustainable and the costs of higher education (HE) are shared fairly between students and taxpayers, not all of whom have benefited from going to university.

The devolved governments have responsibility for HE in their respective countries and determine the student finance arrangements and their sustainability for their students.

The partially means-tested loan for living costs is provided as a contribution towards a student’s living costs while attending university rather than necessarily covering those costs in full, with the highest levels of support paid to students from the lowest income families who need it most. Financial support may be provided by the student’s parents or partner, but there are several other sources of funding available for students such as part-time employment, university bursaries and scholarships and local authority support such as the HE bursary.

Students awarded a loan for living costs for the 2023/24 academic year that is lower than the maximum, and whose household income has dropped by at least 15% compared to the income provided for their original assessment can apply for their entitlement to be reassessed.

The government recognises the additional cost-of-living pressures that have arisen this year and that are impacting students. The department has increased loans for living costs each year for students in England, with a 2.8% increase for the current academic year, 2023/24 and further 2.5% increase announced for 2024/25.

The department has 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.

The department is 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 universities are providing through their own bursary, scholarship and hardship support schemes.

Over the 2022/23 to 2024/25 financial years, the government is providing support worth £104 billion, or £3,700 per household on average, to help families throughout the UK with the cost of living, including help to meet increased household energy costs. This will have eased the pressure on family budgets and so will in turn enabled many families to provide additional support to their children in HE to help them meet increased living costs.