From September 2008, there will be a shake up in the student support system in higher education.
In brief, there are three main ways in which issues around funding will be changed from September 2008 to benefit young people who wish to go into higher education:-
- Maintenance grant entitlement:
- Full grant: The lower limit for new students' household income has been raised to £25000.
- Partial grant: The upper limit for new students' household income has been raised from £35000 to £60005.
- From September 2008, all 16 year olds who qualify for EMA will be given a "firm guarantee of the amount of financial support they will receive should they choose to participate in higher education". This will give young people in that situation more of an idea of the costs involved of moving into higher education before they actually do so.
- Student loans: the terms and conditions will be changing, allowing graduates who start loan repayments from April 2012 to take a "repayment break" of up to five years when they like.
A DVD to promote these changes for people looking to go into higher education from September 2008 has been released - it can be viewed online here.
These changes will affect many people looking to get into higher education, but may have discounted doing so thinking it will be too expensive.
