§ 10. Mr. Phil Willis (Harrogate and Knaresborough)What plans he has to allow part-time further education and higher education students to have access to income-contingent loans. [43765]
§ The Minister for School Standards (Mr. Stephen Byers)The Teaching and Higher Education Bill contains provisions that will give the Government the power to make support available to part-time students by way of income-contingent loans.
§ Mr. WillisOn 21 April, the Under-Secretary of State for Education and Employment, the hon. Member for Pontypridd (Dr. Howells), said in the Standing Committee on the Teaching and Higher Education Bill that the Government intended to move to resource accounting in 2001–02 and to use the student loan debt as a "balance sheet asset". Can the Minister confirm that? In those circumstances, what earthly reason is there for not allowing part-time students to have access to income-contingent loans from 2001?
§ Mr. ByersThe year 2001 will take care of itself when it arrives. We must give the Government the power to provide part-time students with access to 1187 income-contingent loans. The Bill enables us to do that. In 2001, we may be able to make the finances available to secure access to those loans.
We are putting measures in place before then, because current part-time students need support. That is why my right hon. Friend the Secretary of State announced on Monday access to a fund for part-timers who are at present in work and who might become unemployed. He also announced that, for the first time, part-time students would have access to the access fund, and the money for the access fund was doubled. Practical steps are being taken now to offer new opportunities to part-time students—we are not waiting until 2001.
§ Mr. Derek Wyatt (Sittingbourne and Sheppey)One of the great things that we did this century was to create the Open university. Will Open university students qualify for part-time funding?
§ Mr. ByersOpen university students will be in the position of other part-time students. The year 2001 may well be the time when they will have access to income-contingent loans. They will have access to the new measures announced by my right hon. Friend the Secretary of State on Monday, and that will make a real difference to many of them.
The Government are seized of the fact that Open university students are one of the categories of students for whom education has not been free. People speak of free access to education, but that is simply not the case. We believe that the status quo is not an option. Change must and will take place to extend opportunities and to provide higher education institutions with the money that they need.