Chamber and committees

The total amount of additional loan support assessed for full-time independent students is shown in the following table.

Amount of Additional Loan Support Assessed for Full-Time Independent Students

Academic Year	Amounts £000
2003-04	168
2004-05	204
2005-06	200
2006-07	222
2007-08	271

Source: SAAS.

Independent students are only entitled to the additional loan if their status has changed during their course i.e. they get married or have a child and are therefore classed as independent AND they had been entitled previously to the additional loan, provided the income of their partner (if they married) remains below the threshold. Therefore only a small number of independent students receive the additional loan.

The number of full-time Scottish students studying in the rest of the United Kingdom that were assessed for income assessed loans in the academic year 2007-08 is shown in table 1.

Table 1: Scottish Full-Time Students Studying in the Rest of the UK Supported by Income Assessed Loans

Parental/Spousal Income	Independent		Dependent
	Number	Amount £000	Number	Amount £000
Income not declared/required	5	8	45	106
less than £10,000	30	56	355	733
£10,000 - £19,999	15	33	390	803
£20,000 - £29,999	10	27	370	902
£30,000 - £39,999	0	5	305	708
£40,000 - £49,999	0	3	260	378
£50,000 and over	0	1	145	136
Exempt from Parental/Spousal Contribution	510	1,150	0	0
Total	575	1,283	1,870	3,766

Source: Student Awards Agency for Scotland.

Note: Numbers have been rounded to the nearest five.

Table 2 shows the number of full-time Scottish students who have been assessed for the Additional Loan in the academic year 2007-08.

Table 2: Scottish Full-Time Students Studying in the Rest of the UK Supported by Additional Loans

Parental/Spousal Income	Independent		Dependent
	Number	Amount £000	Number	Amount £000
Income not declared/required	-	-	20	12
less than £10,000	-	-	175	102
£10,000 - £19,999	-	-	200	105
£20,000 - £29,999	-	-	10	1
£30,000 - £39,999	-	-	0	0
£40,000 - £49,999	-	-	0	0
£50,000 and over	-	-	0	0
Exempt from Parental/Spousal Contribution	-	-	0	0
Total	5	2	410	220

Source: Student Awards Agency for Scotland.

Note: Numbers have been rounded to the nearest five.

Independent students are only entitled to the additional loan if their status has changed during their course i.e. they get married or have a child and are therefore classed as independent AND they had been entitled previously to the additional loan, provided the income of their partner (if they married) remains below the threshold. Therefore only a small number of independent students receive the additional loan.

The number of students qualifying for the additional loan is not held centrally. The number of full-time independent students entitled to the additional loan is shown in the following table:

Independent Full-Time Students Entitled to the Additional Loan

Academic Year	Number of Students
2003-04	330
2004-05	390
2005-06	370
2006-07	400
2007-08	475

Source: SAAS.

Note: Numbers have been rounded to the nearest five.

Independent students are only entitled to the Additional Loan if their status has changed during their course i.e. they get married or have a child and are therefore classed as independent AND they had been entitled previously to the additional loan, provided the income of their partner (if they married) remains below the threshold. Therefore only a small number of independent students receive the additional loan.

The Scottish Government has not been able to allocate the resources required to service Scotland-domiciled and resident-graduate debt and we have therefore held no discussions with the Chancellor of the Exchequer or other HM Treasury Ministers.

The recently launched consultation paper on higher education student support: Supporting a Smarter Scotland seeks views on the principles of the methods we wish to explore to service debt should funds be made available in the future.

I refer the member to the answer to question S3W-19000 on 8 January 2009. All answers to written parliamentary questions are available on the Parliament''s website, the search facility for which can be found at http://www.scottish.parliament.uk/Apps2/Business/PQA/Default.aspx.

There are no legal restrictions in either primary or secondary legislation on the maximum amount of student loans which the Scottish ministers may award to students in higher education.

Increasing the levels of student loans would have budgetary implications which would have to be discussed more with HM Treasury. However, this is not Scottish Government policy.

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Option 3 of the consultation paper suggests a hybrid of options 1 and 2. The details of the policy will be developed following consideration of the consultation responses.

The level of graduate debt repayment is expected to increase by £10 million per annum from 2008-09. The budgeted debt repayments for 2008-09 are £56 million compared with budgeted student loan issues of £180.3 million and student loan subsidy costs of £71.4 million.

These statistics have been published for the years 2002-03 to 2007-08 in table 8 of Higher Education Student Support in Scotland 2007-08 available on the internet at:

http://www.scotland.gov.uk/Publications/2008/11/21111027/0.

The evidence base around individuals'' participation in higher education (HE) has identified a range of financial, cultural, institutional and dispositional factors that influence individuals in their choice of pursuing HE. This evidence does not specifically refer to hardship in isolation but rather that the costs associated with study and a fear of debt generally can impact on individual choices to participate in HE. Costs and fear of debt are identified as key themes in the growing research evidence conducted with current and prospective students.

Ongoing Scottish Government research (Student Income, Expenditure and Debt survey) will provide more up to date information of students'' perceptions of debt and costs and assess the extent to which these are determining factors in students'' decisions to enter HE. This may provide more specific information relative to student hardship, however, will be unavailable until April 2009.