Recommendation 37

HM Government Acknowledged

93. The Department agrees that mature students need to study flexibly, and we have taken a number of steps over recent years to encourage more flexible learning, including greater support for part-time learners through up-front loans to meet the full costs of tuition since 2012/13 and full-time equivalent loans for living costs for students attending honours degree and equivalent level courses since 2018/19. We have also removed restrictions preventing graduates getting tuition fee loan funding for a second honours degree in science, technology, mathematics, and engineering taken on a part-time basis. 94. The Government response (March 2017) to the 2016 consultation on part-time loans for living costs made it clear that an extension of part-time loans to distance learners would be subject to having adequate controls in place. The Government stated its intention to review part-time loans for living costs within five years of its 2016 consultation on part-time loans for living costs, and as such is intending to review the part-time loan for living costs in 2021. 95. As the committee notes, the number of adults participating in part-time HE has declined since 2008/09. Much of this decline in part-time entrants to HE has been in courses other than first degrees, such as short courses for institutional credit. There has been a recent increase in the number of entrants to part-time undergraduate degree level study at English HE providers (it has increased from 33,980 in 2016/17 to 44,775 in 2019/20). 96. We recognise that further efforts are needed, and that is why the Prime Minister announced that we will introduce a flexible Lifelong Loan Entitlement as part of the Lifetime Skills Guarantee. The Lifelong Loan Entitlement was one of a number of recommendations the Post-18 and Education and Funding Review made in the Augar Report which the government has published an interim response to and continues to consider. 97. As detailed above, the Lifelong Loan Entitlement will provide individuals with a loan entitlement to the equivalent of four years of post-18 education to use over their lifetime. The loan entitlement will be useable for modules at higher technical and degree levels (levels 4 to 6) regardless of whether they are provided in colleges or universities, as well as for full years of study. It will make it easier for adults and young people to study more flexibly—allowing them to space out their studies, transfer credits between institutions, and partake in more part-time study. 98. The Lifelong Loan Entitlement will be introduced from 2025, but over the coming years we will take steps to support its full delivery. We will consult on the detail and scope of the Lifelong Loan Entitlement later this year, setting our proposals for how and when we will be introducing it. Where necessary, we will put forward legislation in this parliament.