The government will offer grants to higher education learners from low-income households funded by a new tax on international university students, the education secretary has announced.
Bridget Phillipson said today that means-tested maintenance grants will be available to university and HE college students studying technical qualifications at levels 4 to 6 in priority courses “by the end of this Parliament”.
The grants will be funded by income from the new levy on international students at universities in England, which could raise more than £600 million per year, according to estimates.
Phillipson said the move would target “students who need them most” and ensure learners at college or university aren’t “working every hour God sends” to fund their studies.
However, it is not yet known how much the grants will be worth to eligible students.
Further details of how the grants will work, the funding available, and the amount a levy on international students is expected to raise will be set out at the autumn budget on November 26, Labour has said.
It comes almost ten years after the previous Conservative government scrapped means-tested grants for university students of up to £3,387 each year.
Students will be able to access the grants through the Lifelong Learning Entitlement (LLE) loan system, due to launch for HE college and university courses in January 2027.
Phillipson said: “The Tories treated our universities as a political battleground, not a public good. Labour is putting them back in the service of working-class young people.
“Last year, I took the decisive steps we needed on university finances, so opportunity is there tomorrow, for all who want it.
“But I know, you know, that we must do more. So that is why today I’m announcing, that this Labour government will introduce new targeted maintenance grants for students who need them most.”
According to guidance for the LLE, which will cover all post-18 student finance, maintenance loans were planned for learners on face-to-face college or university courses depending on characteristics such as where they live, what they are studying and their household income.
University and College Union general secretary Jo Grady said: “Treating international students as cash cows to fund maintenance grants amounts to robbing Peter to pay Paul.
“This country is already charging international students through the roof to prop up our crumbling education infrastructure. Instead of attacking foreign students, the Labour Government should be fixing our colleges and universities through huge public investment.”
Alex Stanley, National Union of Students vice president higher education, said it was “immoral, unfeasible and financially impossible” to have given the “poorest” HE students the highest debt through extra maintenance loans.
He added: “Today’s announcement is the first piece of tangible action that any UK government has taken to change course on this broken financial funding system since the introduction of £9,000 fees.
“This has to be the beginning of wholesale change in our broken education system. Let us be clear: we do not welcome the introduction of a levy on international students, and we will continue to push back on measures that impact our members.”
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