The Scottish Government

Part- Time Project (part 2)

This project looked at the options for improved student funding mechanisms for part-time students in higher education, specifically around fee support. The options considered were:

• abolish part-time fees;
• subsidise part-time fee levels charged by colleges and universities;
• extend the current part-time fee waiver scheme;
• extend the ILA Scotland scheme to provide more fee support;
• introduce new means-tested grants for fees and/or study costs; and
• enhance existing student loans to include fees as well as study costs.

Although there has not been a formal consultation on the improved financial support for part-time higher education students; we liaised extensively with internal and external stakeholders including colleges and universities to seek feedback on a number of options.

However no single option emerged as a clear favourite from the stakeholder discussions and there was no consensus from stakeholders on whether the funding should be channelled through the institutions or through the learner.

We also discussed the various outline options with Ministers in June 2007 and rejected three of the original options, which were not taken forward for full options appraisal, these were:

• enhancing existing student loans is out of step with our plans to replace student loans with means tested grants.
• subsidising part-time fees could provide for greater flexibility and targeting of fee support than a complete abolition of part-time fees. However it was not clear how this option would interact with existing SFC funding to institutions and was not strongly supported by stakeholders.
• extending the part-time fee waiver scheme has the advantage of building on a well-established funding mechanism. Although it was seen as potentially administratively burdensome for institutions (especially universities) as it would mean introducing new means-testing at local level.

A detailed options appraisal (including indicative costs) was carried out on the remaining options and the recommendation to extend the ILA Scheme (and increase discretionary funds for part-time students' study costs) was approved by Ministers in October 2007.

The new funding support for part-time will be introduced from academic session 2008/09. It consists of a £500 part-time Higher Education (HE) grant for fees for all new and existing students who earn £18,000 or less, and who are studying at 50% or more of a full-time course. In addition there will be an extra £1m allocated annually to institutions HE discretionary funds to support study, travel and childcare costs for part-time students.

The improved support package complements what is already on offer to HE part-time students, as summarised in the table below - (new support shaded)