PARLIAMENTARY WRITTEN QUESTION
Health Professions: Training (24 June 2020)

To ask the Secretary of State for Education, what recent assessment he had made of the affordability of student-funded tuition fees for all nursing, midwifery, and allied healthcare students from the academic year 2020-21.

Asked by:
Sarah Owen (Labour)

The student finance system removes financial barriers for those hoping to study. It is backed by the taxpayer, with outstanding debt written off after 30 years, which is an investment in the future skills of this country.

Maximum tuition fees for undergraduate courses (including nursing, midwifery and allied health professions), and the subsidised fee loans available from the government to pay them, will remain at £9,250 for a standard full-time undergraduate course in the 2020/21 academic year, which is the third year in succession maximum fees have been frozen. Monthly repayments are linked to income and not to interest rates or the amount borrowed. Repayments are calculated (at 9%) only on amounts earned over the repayment threshold, which is currently annually £26,575. Additionally, borrowers are protected, as their repayments decrease if their income decreases.

The government has announced a 2.9% increase in maximum loans for living costs for the 2020/21 academic year to £9,203 for eligible full-time undergraduate students living away from home and studying outside London. Higher rates of loan are available for students living away from home and studying in London. In addition, new and continuing nursing, midwifery and allied health professional students will be eligible to receive a new non-repayable grant of up to £8,000 from September 2020 to contribute to their living costs.

Answered by:
Michelle Donelan (Conservative)
1 July 2020