Written question asked by Nicholas Brown (Labour) on Monday, 23 April 2012, in the House of Commons. It was due for an answer on Wednesday, 25 April 2012. It was answered by Lord Willetts (Conservative) on Thursday, 26 April 2012 on behalf of the Department for Business, Innovation and Skills.

Students: Finance

Question: To ask the Secretary of State for Business, Innovation and Skills what his policy is on the use of fee waivers in place of increased student bursaries as a support mechanism for students.

Answer: Institutions charging above the basic fee level must agree access agreements with the Director of Fair Access to Higher Education. In access agreements, institutions set out the financial support they will offer to disadvantaged students, including bursaries and fee waivers; the additional outreach activities they will undertake; and the measures of achievement that they have set themselves.In our guidance to the Director of Fair Access about access agreements issued February 2011 we suggested that the Director would want to seek to ensure that institutions themselves do not require students to take out higher loans which the institution then re-cycles into poorly targeted bursary schemes. We suggested that the Director of Fair Access might encourage the use of financial waivers that might have the effect of reducing borrowing to both the public purse and the student. In his latest guidance to institutions (19 April 2012) the Director of Fair Access has clarified his expectation that institutions, where possible, take an evidence-based approach in deciding financial support and direct their expenditure according to what has been shown to work well.With student finance changes coming into force from autumn 2012, the Director will closely monitor the impact of fee waivers and bursaries and plans to conduct research and analysis to see if one method of financial support is more effective than another in supporting and promoting fair access.

Secondary information