Students Awards (No. 2) Regulations (Northern Ireland) 1996

Explanatory Note

(This note is not part of the Regulations.)

These Regulations, which come into operation on 1st September 1996 revoke and replace, with amendments, the Students Awards Regulations (Northern Ireland) 1996 (“the previous Regulations”).

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 Education and Libraries Order (Northern Ireland) 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 1995 (S.I. 1995/3321) 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) are described as follows:—

Regulation 3(1) has been amended and a new Part II of Schedule 5 inserted so that students who commence courses at private, commercial institutions in the Republic of Ireland in the 1996/97 academic year will not be eligible for an award. Students who commenced attendance at courses at these institutions before the 10th July 1996 or could have commenced such attendance before that date but for choosing to defer such attendance will retain their eligibility for an award (Regulation 21).

Education and Library Boards have a discretion to reduce the amount of grant payable in a year after the student has been absent from his course for more than 28 days due to illness. The regulations have been amended to ensure that any such reduction of maintenance grant will not take into account those first 28 days of such absence (Regulation 20(5)).

Previous Awards Regulations provided that certain students who lived away from their parents' home but who in the opinion of their Education and Library Board could conveniently attend their courses from home might only be entitled to the ordinary maintenance requirement applicable to students living at their parents' home. This provision has been removed, so that all students who live away from their parents' home are entitled to the ordinary maintenance requirement applicable to students living away from their parents' home (paragraphs 2 and 3 of Schedule 7).

Students attending a course in medicine, dentistry or nursing who by way of clinical training are required to attend a hospital not comprised in their institution are entitled to certain tavel expenses. This provision has been amended to include travel expenses to premises other than hospitals (paragraph 7(b) of Schedule 7).

Part IV of Schedule 7 has been amended so that students who commence their course on or after 1st September 1996 will not be eligible for the older students' allowance. Students on courses in 1995/96 who would have become eligible for the allowance on a second course in a subsequent year will retain their eligibility if the second course is an “end on” course. An “end on” course is a specified course which is taken immediately after the previous course for which the student held an award, disregarding any intervening vacation.

Provision has been made to allow payments under the European Community programme known as “Leonardo da Vinci” to be disregarded in calculating a student’s income for the purposes of ascertaining his entitlement to maintenance grant (paragraph 1(1)(o) of Schedule 8).