Welsh students could have a living expenses grant given to them by the Welsh Government in proposed shake-up.
The “radical overhaul” of the system in Wales has been suggested by an independent review led by Professor Sir Ian Diamond and a panel of experts.
All students would receive £1,000 a year before a means tested grant.
The average Welsh student could receive £7,000 a year in grant support while they study, with a pro-rata version available to part-time students. The maximum level of support available would be £9,113 a year for those studying full-time.
Currently students are given a £5,100 grant towards tuition fees, and this would be replaced by a loan system.
Professor Diamond said: “It is essential to continue to invest in educating the future generations who will drive the economy and society of the future.
“In the 21st Century this requires an education system that minimises the attainment gap between rich and poor and allows people to access higher level skills that are the lifeblood of the kind of nation to which Wales aspires.
“The funding of higher education should be a partnership between wider society and the individual. In contrast to England, where maintenance support for students will be based on loans, we propose a significant universal element of maintenance support for full-time students, meaning students from Wales will face a significantly lower average level of debt on leaving university than those from England.”
Recommendations by Professor Diamond and the panel include:
A new improved maintenance grant support system for undergraduate, post-graduate and part time students. The highest level of grant support will go to those most in need.
A £1,000 annual non-means-tested universal maintenance grant to be made available to all students alongside the additional means-tested grant to cover living costs. Part-time students to receive a modified version of this support on a pro-rata basis.
The top rate of maintenance grant and/or loan support, for a student living away from home outside London, should be equivalent to the National Living Wage – based on 37.5 hours per week over a 30 week period, currently £8,100. A maximum total grant of 25% more (£10,125) to be available for a student living away from home in London and 15% less (£6,885) for students living at home.
Maintenance support to be paid to students on a monthly basis to enable more efficient financial planning and budgeting.
Given the context of austerity in the UK, the recommended improvements to the overall student support package can only be achieved by releasing funds currently used to provide tuition fee grants to full-time undergraduates. The tuition fee grant for full-time undergraduate students should be replaced with a student loan, up to a maximum fee level agreed with the Welsh Government. Repayments would only begin once graduates earn a salary above £21,000.
Education Secretary Kirsty Williams said: “I want to thank Professor Diamond and his team for all their work. This report presents a progressive and sustainable plan for Higher Education in Wales.
“My Cabinet colleagues and I endorse the underlying principles in the report and we will now look into the detail of how we can implement these recommendations.
“We want to make sure that those who wish to go on to university are able to. The fear of not being able to meet the cost of living on a daily basis puts many off, not the prospect of paying back loans after they are in work. This system addresses that issue head on, but will also mean making tough decisions to make sure the system is sustainable in the long-term.
“The generous package of support proposed by the panel would mean Welsh students would benefit from the only UK system that is consistent, progressive and fair across all levels and modes of study.
“I am deeply committed to making sure access to higher education should be determined by academic ability and not social background.”
Changes to the student support system in Wales would not come into effect until 2018 at the earliest.
Last week, the Welsh Government announced the tuition fee level that institutions in Wales will be able to charge will remain at £9,000 for 2017/18
Money, money, money, we haven’t got any to give out. Perhaps it may be a better idea to stay at home with Mam and Dad, work part time, study fewer courses at a local educator and pick something that might be useful.
If you have a talent for rocket science then by all means move to London and take on some debt. Rocket science, by all accounts, pays well I hear but African, feminist, interpretive dance therapy is a bit of a niche market.
The modern obsession with degrees began in the Thatcher era when jobs for our young people became difficult to find. Those in ‘training or education’ handily vanished from the jobless total. Successive governments have latched on to the idea and the result is that our once excellent polytechnics and further education colleges became universities offering a wide range of so called degrees that are unlikely to help the twenty something ex student find a job. Let alone start a career.
I would like to see politicians giving massive incentives to what’s left of our industry to employ 16-18 year olds on proper, four year, apprenticeships. Ideally it would cost the firms concerned nothing to employ and train young people but would give a supply of home grown skilled people.
As well as being of economic benefit to the companies involved, the young people trained and the economy in general I would be willing to wager that it would be far cheaper than the complicated tuition fee funding and student loan system we are currently lumbered with.
I won’t hold my breath as virtually no politician has done an apprenticeship. I did and later went on to become a university graduate, it never made me rich but I have always made a living.