Education, Children and Young People Committee [Draft]

Meeting date: Wednesday, May 29, 2024

Official Report 767KB pdf

Subordinate Legislation

Education (Fees and Student Support) (Miscellaneous Amendments) (Scotland) Regulations 2024 (SSI 2024/140)

Good morning, and welcome to the 17th meeting in 2024 of the Education, Children and Young People Committee. We have received apologies from Stephanie Callaghan.

Our first agenda item is consideration of the Education (Fees and Student Support) (Miscellaneous Amendments) (Scotland) Regulations 2024, which are being considered under the negative procedure.

Do members have any issues that they wish to raise?

I appreciate the opportunity to put something on the record. My comments relate not directly to the specific provisions in these regulations but to provisions on fees in general. As members will know, the part-time student fee grant is available to students with an income of less than £25,000 per year, but neither the level of the grant nor the threshold to access it has changed in a decade.

Concerns are being raised, particularly by those from the Open University, as 69 per cent of its students are part time. One student has said that they received a cost of living pay increase from their employer that pushed them just over the £25,000 threshold, meaning that they could no longer afford their studies. Another student, who works in the national health service, said that the lowest-paid full-time NHS Scotland employee now earns £25,368, so they are outwith the bracket of people who can access the grant, even though they need to access their course as part of their work.

I draw members’ attention to that and ask whether there is anything that we can do to draw it to the Government’s attention.

Those comments are on the record, and we will be able to discuss the matter further in private session.

Does the committee agree that it does not wish to make any recommendations in relation to the instrument that is in front of us?

Members indicated agreement.