The Education (Student Support) (Amendment) Regulations (Northern Ireland) 2020

EXPLANATORY NOTE

(This note is not part of the Regulations)

These Regulations amends the Education (Student Support) (No. 2) Regulations (Northern Ireland) 2009/373 (“the Student Support Regulations”).

Regulation 3 amends regulation 8 of the Student Support Regulations to provide that a student who transfers from a full-time course which started before 1st August 2019 to an accelerated course in England which started on or after 1st August 2019 will be entitled to apply for a fee loan for their accelerated course in England up to the higher limits that apply for an accelerated course starting on or after 1st August 2019 and grants and loans for living and other costs. The Department will be able to reassess the amount of support payable to the student after the transfer and the student may be able to apply to the Department to borrow an additional amount of loan in respect of the course to which the student transfers.

Regulation 4, and 5(c) make corrections to regulation 43(6) and Schedule 5 which are a consequence of Regulation 5’s amendment to Schedule 5. Regulation 5(c)(iv) omits sub-paragraph 4 of paragraph 6 of Schedule 5

Regulation 5 amends Schedule 5 to the Student Support Regulations and makes provision in circumstances where a student’s household income is based on the incomes of both parents, or a student’s parent and the parent’s partner. In these circumstances, where the parents’, or parent and partner’s, income falls by 5% or more compared to either the “prior financial year” (as defined in the Student Support Regulations), or the previous financial year, the Department may assess the parent’s, or parent’s partner’s, income for the current financial year.

Regulation 5(b)(ii) corrects the definition of “prior financial year” in paragraph 6 of Schedule 5.

Regulations 6 to 10 insert de-designation powers to course designation provisions in the Student Support Regulations.

Regulation 11 corrects an error which was made in paragraph (3) of regulation 46.

Regulation 12 amends regulation 149 in relation to a course which begins on or after 1st August 2020, to provide that a student who has previously received a grant under regulation 33(1) of the Education (Student Support) Postgraduate Master’s Degrees (Wales) Regulations 2019 is not eligible for a master’s degree loan.

Regulation 13 removes regulation 155 and Regulation 14 substitutes regulation 156 in order to facilitate the removal of the yearly cap on tuition fee loan amounts for Master’s, etc. students and limits the amount of loan instead on the basis of the whole course.

Regulation 15 removes a reference to a provision removed by Regulation 13.

Regulation 16 clarifies that only those undergraduate courses designated for support in the Republic of Ireland will be designated for support in Northern Ireland. Regulation 17 then amends Schedule 6 to the 2009 Regulations, which lists the Republic of Ireland institutions that have courses designated for student support.

Regulation 18 and the Schedule to these Regulations amend the Student Support Regulations to update the payment rates for student support in relation to an academic year which begins on or after 1st August 2020.

An impact assessment has not been produced for this instrument as no, or no significant, impact on the private, voluntary or public sectors is foreseen.