Explanatory Note
(This note is not part of the Regulations.)
These Regulations, which come into operation on 10th June 1996 and have effect retrospectively from 1st September 1995 revoke and replace, with amendments, the Students Awards Regulations (Northern Ireland) 1995 (“the previous Regulations”).
Retrospection is authorised by Article 50(2) of the Education and Libraries (Northern Ireland) Order 1986, S.I. 1986/594 (N.I. 3) (“the Order of 1986”).
The Regulations govern the making of awards (“mandatory awards”) which it is the duty of education and library boards to make to specified persons. They do not relate to awards (“discretionary awards”) which, in pursuance of Article 50(3) of the Order of 1986, boards may make under arrangements approved by the Department of Education.
While their text and format do not repeat exactly the provision made in England and Wales, the Regulations maintain parity of awards for Northern Ireland students with their English and Welsh counterparts including reduced basic maintenance grant and tuition fee levels. They parallel in substance most of the provisions of the Education (Mandatory Awards) Regulations 1994 (S.I. 1994/3044) made by the Secretary of State for Education relating to awards for students in England and Wales.
The principal changes (other than the changes in the rates of fees, grants and allowances) as compared with the previous Regulations, are described as follows:—
School centred courses for the initial training of teachers which qualify for funding under Part I of the Education Act 1994 are specified courses for educational facilities for the purposes of Article 50(1) of the Order. The definition of “institution” has been amended to include institutions, including schools, which provide such courses (regulation 3).
The circumstances in which a second award may be made to a student has been amended to ensure that a second award may be made to a student attending such a course (regulation 9).
The definition of a “first degree course” has been extended to include provided wholly or partly by institutions not maintained or assisted by recurrent grants out of public funds (regulation 3(d)).
Regulation 3 has been amended to provide that courses may be specified as educational facilities under regulation 10 not only when it is provided by one institution but also when it is provided by more than one institution.
A student whom the board is satisfied is obliged to incur supplementary expenditure in respect of his attendance on a course by reason of a disability, may take the amount of such expenditure which is included in his requirements for maintenance for the year into account in determining whether certain types of payment received by him are of sufficient size to disentitle him to payments pursuant to an award in that year (regulation 17(i)(b)(ii)).