1 Loans for students.

1

The Secretary of State may make arrangements for enabling eligible students to receive loans towards their maintenance out of money made available by him for that purpose.

F11A

The Secretary of State may, in pursuance of arrangements with persons by whom private sector student loans are made, pay subsidy to those persons in respect of such loans; and in this subsection “private sector student loans” means loans made to eligible students towards their maintenance otherwise than out of money made available by the Secretary of State.

F21B

In this Act—

a

references to public sector student loans are to loans under arrangements made under subsection (1) above; and

b

references to subsidised private sector student loans are to loans in respect of which arrangements such as are mentioned in subsection (1A) above provide for the payment (at any time or in any circumstances) of subsidy under that subsection.

2

For the purposes of this section eligible students are those who—

a

are attending courses of higher education which are of at least one academic year’s duration and either are at institutions receiving support from public funds or (being at other institutions) are designated for the purposes of this section by or under regulations made by the Secretary of State; and

b

satisfy such other conditions as may be prescribed by regulations made by him.

3

In this section “courses of higher education” means courses of any description mentioned in Schedule 1 to this Act and “institutions receiving support from public funds” means—

a

universities and other institutions receiving grants under section F365 of the Further and Higher Education Act 1992F4or under section 5 of the Education Act 1994, institutions maintained by local education authorities in exercise of their further and higher education functions, F5institutions receiving recurrent grants towards their costs from a further education funding council and institutions receiving recurrent grants towards their costs under regulations made under F6section 485 of the Education Act 1996;

F7b

educational establishments within the meaning of section 135(1) of the Education (Scotland) Act 1980 for the provision of any form of further education for the management of which establishment an education authority is responsible, colleges of further education within the meaning of section 36(1) of the Further and Higher Education (Scotland) Act 1992 managed by boards of management established under Part I of that Act and designated institutions within the meaning of Part II of that Act of 1992

c

the Queen’s University of Belfast, the University of Ulster, a college of education in Northern Ireland within the meaning of Article 2(2) of the M1Education and Libraries (Northern Ireland) Order 1986 and institutions providing in Northern Ireland further education as defined in Article 5(c) of that Order.

4

The Secretary of State may by order amend Schedule 1 to this Act but before doing so shall consult any persons with whom consultation appears to him to be desirable.

5

Schedule 2 to this Act shall have effect in relation to F8public sector student loans and subsidised private sector student loans.

6

The power to make orders under subsection (4) above shall be exercisable by statutory instrument and no such order shall be made unless a draft of it has been laid before and approved by a resolution of each House of Parliament.

7

The power to make regulations under this section or Schedule 2 to this Act shall be exercisable by statutory instrument which, subject to subsection (8) below and paragraph 1(2) of that Schedule, shall be subject to annulment in pursuance of a resolution of either House of Parliament and any such regulations may make different provision for different cases.

8

A draft of the first regulations to be made under this section or Schedule 2 to this Act shall be laid before each House of Parliament and those regulations shall not be made unless the draft has been approved by a resolution of each House.