3.—(1) The Scottish Ministers may pay an allowance, in accordance with the provisions of section 73(f) (power of Secretary of State to make grants to education authorities and others) of the Act and this Part, to or in respect of any person undertaking a course of education who is a person described in one or more paragraphs of schedule 1 but a person will not be eligible for an allowance if the Scottish Ministers have determined that the person has shown themselves by their conduct to be unfit to receive an allowance.
(2) In paying an allowance under paragraph (1), the Scottish Ministers may determine to—
(a)pay different allowances for different purposes, and
(b)impose different terms and conditions in relation to different allowances.
(3) Schedule 3 is to have effect for determining whether a person is to be treated, for the purposes of schedule 1 as being, or having been, ordinarily resident in a place at, or for, a particular time.
(4) For the purposes of this Part, and subject to paragraph (5), in assessing a person’s eligibility under schedule 1 for an allowance for a course of education, that course of education will be deemed to have started on the date that the first constituent part of any programme which contributes to the final award for that course of education commenced.
(5) In assessing a person’s eligibility under schedule 1 for an allowance for a course of education—
(a)a programme leading to—
(i)a degree,
(ii)a Higher National Diploma, or
(iii)a Higher National Certificate, and
(b)such other programmes as the Scottish Ministers may determine,
are to be treated as separate and distinct courses of education.