Written question asked by Gareth Johnson (Conservative) on Thursday, 19 April 2012, in the House of Commons. It was due for an answer on Monday, 23 April 2012. It was answered by Lord Willetts (Conservative) on Monday, 30 April 2012 on behalf of the Department for Business, Innovation and Skills.

Students: Loans

Question: To ask the Secretary of State for Business, Innovation and Skills what proportion of (a) mathematics and (b) science graduates have had their student loans repaid by the Government while remaining teachers.

Answer: The information is not available in the form requested. The data collected by the Student Loans Company (SLC) can only confirm entry to the teaching profession for those teachers who have had some or all of their loans repaid as part of the Repayment Teachers Loan (RTL) scheme. It is not possible from SLC data to reflect this figure as a rate for the wider teacher population.As at the 31 March 2012, some 20,000 UK income contingent repayment loan (ICR) borrowers had benefited from full or partial debt repayments by the Department for Education as part of the RTL scheme. Based on returns provided to SLC that show qualifying course information, we estimate that around 46% of these beneficiaries had studied mathematics and science based courses. The Department for Education only funded the RTL scheme for borrowers normally domiciled in England.

Secondary information