The Assembly Learning Grants and Loans (Higher Education) (Wales) Regulations 2009

Regulation 58

SCHEDULE 4 COLLEGE FEE LOANS

Availability of college fee loans

1.  A person qualifies for a college fee loan in connection with his or her attendance on a qualifying course in accordance with this Schedule.

2.  A person qualifies for a college fee loan if he or she meets the following conditions—

(a) he or she is an eligible student who is not excluded from qualifying by paragraph 3;

(b) he or she has an honours degree from an institution in the United Kingdom;

(c) he or she is taking a qualifying course which he or she—

(i) starts on or after 1 September 2006 and on which he or she is continuing after 31 August 2010; or

(ii) starts on or after 1 September 2010;

(d) he or she is a member of a college or a permanent private hall of the University of Oxford or a member of a college of the University of Cambridge;

(e) he or she is under the age of 60 on the first day of the first academic year of the qualifying course; and

(f) none of the circumstances in regulation 4(3) apply to him or her.

3.  An eligible student who falls within paragraph 9 of Part 2 of Schedule 1 does not qualify for a college fee loan under these Regulations if he or she is ordinarily resident in England, Scotland or Northern Ireland.

Disabled students

4.  A disabled student who is undertaking a qualifying course in the United Kingdom but who is not in attendance because he or she is not able to attend for a reason which relates to his or her disability is treated as if he or she were in attendance on the qualifying course for the purpose of qualifying for the college fee loan.

Students becoming eligible during the course of an academic year

5.  Where one of the events listed in paragraph 6 occurs in the course of an academic year–

(a) a student may qualify for a college fee loan in accordance with this Schedule in respect of that academic year provided that the relevant event occurred within the first three months of the academic year; and

(b) a college fee loan is not available in respect of any academic year beginning before the academic year in which the relevant event occurred.

6.  The events are—

(a) the student, his or her spouse, his or her civil partner or his or her parent is recognised as a refugee or becomes a person with leave to enter or remain;

(b) a state accedes to the European Community where the student is a national of that state or is the family member (as defined in Part 1 of Schedule 1) of a national of that state;

(c) the student becomes a family member (as defined in Part 1 of Schedule 1) of an EC national;

(d) the student acquires a right of permanent residence;

(e) the student becomes the child of a Turkish worker;

(f) the student becomes a person described in paragraph 6(1)(a) of Schedule 1;

(g) the student becomes the child of a Swiss national.

7.  A college fee loan is available in respect of each standard academic year of the qualifying course and in respect of one academic year of the qualifying course that is not a standard academic year.

8.  Where a qualifying student is allowed to study the content of one standard academic year of the qualifying course over two or more academic years, for the purpose of determining whether the student qualifies for a college fee loan for those years, the first of such years of study is to be treated as a standard academic year and the following years of that kind are to be treated as academic years that are not standard academic years.

9.  In this Schedule “standard academic year” (“blwyddyn academaidd safonol”) means an academic year of the qualifying course that would be taken by a person who does not repeat any part of the course and who enters the course at the same point as the qualifying student.

10.  To receive a college fee loan, a qualifying student must enter into a contract with the Welsh Ministers.

Amount of the college fee loan

11.—(1) The amount of the college fee loan in respect of an academic year of a qualifying course must not exceed the amount equal to the college fees payable by the student to his or her college or permanent private hall in connection with that year.

(2) Where a qualifying student has applied for a college fee loan of less than the maximum amount available in relation to the academic year, he or she may apply to borrow an additional amount which, when added to the amount already applied for, does not exceed the maximum amount available.

Transfers

12.  Despite regulation 8, where a qualifying student transfers from one qualifying course to another qualifying course—

(a) the Welsh Ministers must transfer the student’s status as a qualifying student to the other course on the request of the student unless the period of eligibility has terminated;

(b) subject to paragraph (c) if the student transfers before the end of the academic year after applying for a college fee loan, the amount applied for is paid to the relevant college or permanent private hall in respect of the qualifying course to which the student transfers provided that the conditions in paragraph 13 are met and he or she cannot qualify for another college fee loan in respect of that academic year;

(c) if the student transfers after the college fee loan is paid and before the end of the academic year, he or she cannot apply for another college fee loan in connection with the academic year of the qualifying course to which he or she transfers.

Payment

13.—(1) The Welsh Ministers must pay the college fee loan for which a qualifying student qualifies to the college or permanent private hall to which the student is liable to make payment.

(2) The Welsh Ministers must pay the college fee loan in a single lump sum.

(3) The Welsh Ministers must not pay the college fee loan before—

(a) they have received a valid request for payment from the college or permanent private hall; and

(b) a period of three months beginning with the first day of the academic year has expired.

(4) A college or permanent private hall is required to send confirmation of attendance to the Welsh Ministers in such form as the Welsh Ministers may require and the Welsh Ministers must not pay the college fee loan in respect of the academic year until they have received an attendance confirmation from the relevant college or private hall unless they determine that owing to exceptional circumstances, it would be appropriate to make a payment without receiving an attendance confirmation. In this paragraph “attendance confirmation” has the same meaning as in regulation 67.

(5) The Welsh Ministers must not make a payment of college fee loan in respect of a qualifying course if–

(a) before the expiry of a period of three months beginning with the first day of the academic year the qualifying student ceases to attend or in the case of a student who is treated as in attendance under paragraph 4, undertake the course; and

(b) the college or permanent private hall has determined or agreed that the student will not commence attending or, as the case may be, undertaking the course in the United Kingdom again during the academic year in respect of which the college fees are payable or at all.

Conditions of entitlement to payment of college fee loan

14.—(1) The Welsh Ministers may make it a condition of entitlement to payment of a college fee loan that a qualifying student must provide them with his or her United Kingdom national insurance number.

(2) Where the Welsh Ministers have imposed a condition under sub-paragraph (1), they must not make any payment of the loan to the qualifying student before they are satisfied that the student has complied with that condition.

(3) Despite sub-paragraph (2), the Welsh Ministers may make a payment of loan to a qualifying student if they are satisfied that owing to exceptional circumstances it would be appropriate to make such a payment without the qualifying student having complied with the condition imposed under sub-paragraph (1).

Information requirements

15.—(1) The Welsh Ministers may at any time request from a qualifying student information that they consider is required to recover a loan.

(2) The Welsh Ministers may at any time require a qualifying student to enter into an agreement to repay a loan by a particular method.

(3) The Welsh Ministers may at any time request from a qualifying student sight of his or her valid national identity card, his or her valid passport issued by the state of which he or she is a national or his or her birth certificate.

(4) Where the Welsh Ministers have requested information under this regulation, they may withhold any payment of a loan until the person provides what has been requested or provides a satisfactory explanation for not complying with the request.

(5) Where the Welsh Ministers have requested an agreement as to the method of repayment under this paragraph, they may withhold any payment of a college fee loan until the person provides what has been requested.

Overpayment

16.  Any overpayment of college fee loan is recoverable by the Welsh Ministers from the college or permanent private hall.