The Education (Student Support) (No. 2) Regulations (Northern Ireland) 2009 (Amendment) (No. 2) Regulations (Northern Ireland) 2013

EXPLANATORY NOTE

(This note is not part of the Regulations)

These Regulations amend the Education (Student Support) (No. 2) Regulations (Northern Ireland) 2009 (“the 2009 Regulations”). The 2009 Regulations provide for financial support for students taking designated higher education courses in respect of an academic year beginning on or after 1st September 2010.

These Regulations make minor policy and technical changes to the 2009 Regulations and these changes are set out in the paragraphs below. These Regulations also, by regulation 17 and the Schedule, set out the increased payment rates for fee loans, grants for fees and fee contribution loans for full-time courses and sandwich courses which apply from 1st September 2014.

Regulation 3(c) amends the definition of Erasmus year for eligible students who are undertaking an Erasmus year on courses starting on or after 1st September 2012 at an institution in England or Wales. Regulation 3(e) amends the definition of ‘preliminary course’ to include all previous courses a student has undertaken, not just the last previous course a student has undertaken when assessing him for student support purposes.

Regulations 4, 12 and 13 make changes to the conditions which must be satisfied for a course to be designated under the 2009 Regulations. To be automatically designated a course will either need to be: (i) wholly provided by an authority-funded educational institution, (ii) provided by a publicly funded institution in the United Kingdom (or a relevant institution of higher education in the Republic of Ireland in relation regulation 4 only) on behalf of an authority-funded educational institution; or (iii) provided by an authority-funded educational institution in conjunction with an institution outside the United Kingdom (or a relevant institution of higher education in the Republic of Ireland in relation to regulation 4 only). Regulation 3(a) amends regulation 2(1) of the 2009 Regulations to introduce a new definition of “authority-funded”. Regulation 3(b) amends the definition of “current system student”.

Regulation 5 amends regulation 20 of the 2009 Regulations to allow students undertaking an Erasmus year of a course starting on or after 1st September 2012 at an institution in England and Wales to qualify for a fee loan. Regulations 3(d) and (f), 6 and 7(a) make consequential amendments.

Regulations 5(b), 8 and 9 have been amended as the Business Education Initiative has been renamed Study USA. Regulation 5(e) is amended to include the category of students who are eligible to apply for a relevant institution charge loan.

Regulation 5(e) provides for the calculation of the amount of the relevant institution charge loan.

Regulation 7(b) amends a typographical error in regulation 13 of S.R.2012, No. 398

Regulations 10 and 11 amend the provisions in the 2009 Regulations to allow overpayments of loans under Part 6 of those Regulations to be subtracted from any further loans remaining to be paid under Part 6.

Regulation 14 amends Schedule 3 to remove courses for further training of youth and community workers from the list of courses that can be designated for student support.

Regulation 15 amends Schedule 5 to remove references to ‘ordinary resident’ for the purposes of calculating an eligible student’s parent’s taxable income.

Regulation 16 has been amended to remove St Catherine’s College from Schedule 6 and Tipperary Rural and Business Development Institute from the list of courses that can be designated for student support.

An impact assessment has not been prepared in respect of this instrument as it has no impact on the cost of business, charities or voluntary bodies.