§ Mr. DowdTo ask the Secretary of State for Education what education grants or other forms of assistance are available to asylum seekers to enable them to take up full-time courses(a) while their applications to remain are 583W determined, (b) when they have been granted exceptional leave to remain and (c) when they have been granted indefinite leave to remain; and what is their status, as seen by college authorities, when in each of the above categories.
§ Mr. BoswellMandatory awards and student loans, and help from the access funds, are available to eligible students on qualifying courses of higher education who have been ordinarily resident in the British islands throughout the three years immediately prceding the start of the academic year in which their course commences. Students who are recognised as refugees within the meaning of the United Nations convention relating to the status of refugees and who are now ordinarily resident in the British islands are exempt from the three-year requirement, as are their spouses and children. They are eligible for support from the date of their recognition as refugees. This provision does not apply to students who have been granted exceptional or indefinite leave to remain, for whom local education authorities are free to make discretionary awards. Discretionary awards may also be available for most other courses of further and higher education not designated for mandatory awards. Other assistance may be available through refugee charitable organisations in the form of scholarship programmes.
Further and higher education institutions may not, in most cases, lawfully charge a higher rate of fee to students who are recognised as refugees or have been granted leave to enter or remain in the United Kingdom than to students who meet the three year ordinary residence requirement.