1998 No. 262
EDUCATION
The Education (Student Loans) (Amendment) Regulations (Northern Ireland) 1998
Made 24th July 1998
Coming into operation 1st August 1998

The Department of Education, in exercise of the powers conferred on it by Article 3(2) of and paragraphs 1 and 2 of Schedule 2 to the Education (Student Loans) (Northern Ireland) Order 1990 and of every other power enabling it in that behalf, hereby makes the following Regulations:
S.I. 1990/1506 (N.I. 11); as amended by S.I. 1996/274 (N.I. 1), Article 43 and Schedule 5 Part II, S.I. 1996/1918 (N.I. 15), Article 3 and the Schedule and S.I. 1998/258 (N.I. 1), Articles 3 to 6

1 Citation and commencement
These Regulations may be cited as the Education (Student Loans) (Amendment) Regulations (Northern Ireland) 1998 and shall come into operation on 1st August 1998.

2 Amendment of the Education (Student Loans) Regulations (Northern Ireland) 1998
The Education (Student Loans) Regulations (Northern Ireland) 1998 shall be amended as follows—
(a) in regulation 3(1), in the definition of “accelerated course” the words following the words “of two academic years' duration” shall be deleted;
(b) in regulation 4, after paragraph (3) there shall be inserted the following paragraph—

“4 For the purposes of paragraph (2)(a) and Schedule 1 if a person withdraws from a designated course (“the first course”) provided by any institution with the agreement of that institution without completing the course and if, disregarding any intervening vacation, he immediately commences attending another designated course (‘the second course’) provided by the same or by a different institution the first day of the first course shall be regarded as the first day of the second course; or, as the case may be, as the first day of any subsequent course which the student has commenced attending in the same fashion.”

(c) in regulation 6, for each of the figures in Column (1) below wherever it appears in paragraphs (1) to (4) there shall be substituted the figure specified opposite thereto in Column (2)—
Column (1)	Column (2)
£	£
945	970
1,520	1,565
1,290	1,325
2,085	2,145
1,230	1,265
1,685	1,735
S.R. 1998 No. 58
Sealed with the Official Seal of the Department of Education on
Neill Jackson Assistant Secretary 24th July 1998.

(This note is not part of the Regulations.)
The Education (Student Loans) Regulations (Northern Ireland) 1998 (“the principal Regulations”) govern student loans made under the Education (Student Loans) (Northern Ireland) Order 1990, which are mortgage style repayment loans. It is the intention that after 1st September 1998 such loans will be made primarily to students who started their courses before that date, and certain other students. New style loans repayable through the tax system will be made to students starting courses after that date.
These Regulations, which come into operation on 1st August 1998, amend the principal Regulations as follows:—
(a) a reference to a course provided by St. Martin’s College, Lancaster, has been removed, as it is no longer offered (regulation 2(a)).
(b) Provision has been made to ensure that the eligibility of students who transfer from one course to another before completing the first course is determined by reference to the date of the beginning of the first course rather than the second course (regulation 2(b)). For example, an eligible student who was under 50 before starting his first course will continue to be eligible for a loan even if he transfers to another course at another institution after reaching the age of 50.
(c) The maximum amounts which may be lent in relation to an academic year have been increased in line with inflation (regulation 2(c)).