Morgan, Michelle

English

Digital Education Resource Archive

SDR 96/2012                                                                                                                                   14 June 2012  Student Support Applications for Higher Education, Wales – update at end of May 2012  This monthly Statistical First Release presents information on the number of Higher Education student support applications and Tuition Fee Loan (TFL) applications received from, and Tuition Fee Grants (TFG) awarded to, Welsh domiciled students (wherever they study) and EU domiciled students studying in Wales in academic year 2011/12, as at 27 May 2012. The release is based on data provided by the Student Loans Company and is correct as at 28 May 2012 (see Notes for further details).  Student support is money to help students with living and learning costs while they are studying in higher education. Since 2006/07, students have been able to apply for non-means tested loans to cover tuition fee costs.  From the 1 September 2012, students who normally live in Wales and are entering an UK Higher Education Institution (HEI) or college charging variable tuition fees (of up to a maximum of £9,000) will be eligible to receive a Tuition Fee Grant (TFG) of up to £5,535. EU students will be eligible for this TFG if they are studying in Wales. Welsh domiciled students and EU domiciled students studying in Wales who started their course between September 2006 and August 2010, are eligible for a non-means tested TFG of up to £2,085 (2012/13 level). The grants are not means-tested and are non-repayable. Welsh domiciled students and EU students commencing their studies between 1 September 2010 and 31 August 2012 are not eligible for a TFG (except those who deferred entry to higher education). Key results These data are the second monthly data concerning applications for 2012/13 and the new fee arrangements. As at 27 May 2012, student support applications were down 6 per cent on 2011/12 (Chart 1). However, it is too early to predict whether the percentage decrease seen this month will apply to final data. Changes in timing of the application process may affect percentage changes this early in the cycle. • In the 2012/13 academic year to date, a total of 27,460 applications had been received for student support (Chart 1). • 24,550 applications had been received for TFLs, a decrease of 6 per cent on 2011/12 (Chart 2). • To date, 12,770 students have been awarded a TFG.       Statistician: Michelle Morgan      Tel: 029 2082 3895              E-mail: post16ed.stats@wales.gsi.gov.uk   Next update: 12 July 2012 Twitter: www.twitter.com/statisticswales | www.twitter.com/ystadegaucymru   Chart 1: Cumulative number of all student support applications received, by month and year of study Chart 2: Cumulative number of all TFL applications received, by month and year of study 010,00020,00030,00040,00050,00060,000Apr May Jun Jul Aug Sep Oct Nov Dec Jan Feb Mar2007/08 2008/092009/102010/112011/122012/13 010,00020,00030,00040,00050,00060,000Apr May Jun Jul Aug Sep Oct Nov Dec Jan Feb Mar2007/08 2008/092009/102010/112011/122012/13  Associated figures can be seen here:     Annex 1: Notes  1. Policy/Operational Context Student support is money to help students with tuition fee and living costs while they are studying in higher education. In 2006/07, loans to cover the cost of tuition fees (TFLs) became available to all Welsh students and those EU domiciled students studying in Wales. Tuition fee payments can be deferred until students have left higher education and are earning over £15,000 (or £21,000 for those entering higher education from 2012/13).  New arrangements have been put in place for the 2012/13 academic year following the introduction of higher variable tuition fees of up to £9,000. From 1 September 2012, students who normally live in Wales and are entering an UK Higher Education Institution (HEI) or college charging variable tuition fees (of up to a maximum of £9,000) will be eligible to receive a Tuition Fee Grant (TFG) of up to £5,535. Welsh domiciled students and EU domiciled students studying in Wales who started their course between September 2006 and August 2010, are eligible for a non-means tested TFG of up to £2,085 (2012/13 level). The grants are not means-tested and are non-repayable. Students commencing their studies between 1 September 2010 and 31 August 2012 are not eligible for a TFG.  These monthly updates may provide an early indication of student numbers compared with the previous year, though changes in the application process, such as timing, can affect comparisons. 2. Rounding strategy Figures in this release have been rounded to the nearest 5. 3. Data source Student support applications and payments are administered by the Student Loans Company (SLC). Relevant data are entered by SLC staff onto an administrative database, and are also stored in a management information data warehouse for the purpose of management reporting, operational performance reporting, audit of processes, statistics, future policy planning and forecasting. Processes and systems which enable customer and application assessment data to be held electronically, are subject to periodic audit and integrity checks. Management Information extracted from SLC systems are subject to quality assurances prior to distribution. Due to the way data is extracted from SLC’s data warehouse, figures are usually reflective of the position as at the last Sunday of the month (for April 2011, due to an administrative issue, this was not possible and the effective date was therefore 1 May 2011), rather than the last day. With regard to student support applications and TFL applications received, the following workstages (as defined by SLC) are included: eligibility incomplete; entitlement incomplete; pending LEA manual assessment; awaiting validation; awaiting LEA approval; approved; held; approved – awaiting signature. With regard to TFGs, figures are for “awarded grants” and all will not necessarily be paid. The following workstages (as defined by SLC) are included: eligibility incomplete; entitlement incomplete; pending LEA manual assessment; awaiting validation; awaiting LEA approval; approved; held; approved – awaiting signature. 4. Key Quality Information 4.1 Relevance The statistics are used both within and outside the Welsh Government to monitor educational trends and as a baseline for further analysis of the underlying data. Some of the key users are:  • Ministers and the Members Research Service in the National Assembly for Wales;  • Officials in the Welsh Government and other government departments;  • Students, researchers, academics and universities;  • Individual citizens, private companies, and the media.  These statistics are used in a variety of ways. Some examples of these are: • advice to Ministers and officials on the performance and efficiency of the student finance application process, and application trends compared with previous years; • monitoring and forecasting the cost of student finance; • to inform and evaluate the education policy-making process in Wales.  4.2 Accuracy Statisticians within the Welsh Government review the data and query any anomalies with the Student Loans Company before tables are published. The updated monthly figures for the current academic year are correct at the time of publication. In August 2011, administrative errors were discovered in the 2007/08 Academic Year data in StatsWales table 003821. As a result, all data for May and June 2007/08 were revised on 11 August 2011.    4.3 Timeliness and Punctuality This is the second monthly publication for academic year 2012/13. Monthly updates during a given academic year are published as soon as possible, a few weeks following the end of a given month, and according to a planned and pre-announced series of publication dates.  Applications for academic year 2011/12 began on 21 February 2011, whereas applications for academic year 2012/13 began on the 21 March 2012. The deadline for applications from new and returning students was brought back from 15 April in 2011 to 4 May 2012 and 1 June 2012 respectively. Final data for 2010/11 was published by the SLC on 29 November 2011. Final 2011/12 data will be published in November 2012.  4.4 Accessibility and Clarity This statistical release is published on the Statistics section of the Welsh Government website. It is accompanied by more detailed tables on StatsWales, a free to use service that allows visitors to view, manipulate, create and download data.     4.5 Comparability New system Welsh and EU domiciled students studying in Wales (i.e. those entering the new support arrangements introduced in September 2006) were subject to tuition fees of £1,200, while Welsh domiciled students studying in England were subject to variable tuition fees of up to £3,000. In 2007/08, variable tuition fees (up to £3,465 in 2012/13) were introduced in Wales, affecting all students who started their courses from 2006/07 onwards. In 2012/13, increased tuition fees of up to £9,000 and a new Tuition Fee Grant of up to £5,535 are introduced, affecting all students starting their course from 2012/13.    2010/11 TFG data includes some applicants who have indicated that they are on an end-on course, or have been on a Gap year. 2011/12 TFG data includes some applicants who have indicated that they are on an end-on course. A course is an end-on course if:                                                                ¾ the student completed a full-time course last academic year and is starting a new one this academic year; and                                                                   ¾ the student is doing either of the following things:  o starting to study for a degree having completed a lower level HE qualification (eg foundation degree or HND); or  o converting an ordinary degree to an Honours degree.     5. Further Information Updates providing the number of student support applications during 2012/13 will be published monthly, and will be found on the Statistics for Wales website. Comparable monthly data for all academic years can be found in StatsWales table 003821. Further information about student support can be found at www.StudentFinanceWales.co.uk. Related Articles Statistical Releases on other strands of student support in Wales are available via the following link: http://wales.gov.uk/topics/statistics/theme/post16ed/student-finance/?lang=enThe latest annual Statistical Release on Student Support for Higher Education in Wales, published by the Student Loans Company, is available via the following link: http://www.slc.co.uk/statistics/national-statistics/newnationalstatistics1.aspx

Student support applications for higher education, Wales : update at end of May 2012

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