HC Deb 18 January 1994 vol 235 cc539-40W
Mrs. Dunwoody

To ask the Secretary of State for Education if he will make it his policy to ensure that students who are entitled to a mandatory grant for a higher national diploma course are allowed to continue to receive that grant for a degree at another institution while continuing to study the same subject.

Mr. Boswell

A student who has already received a mandatory award for an HND course and who goes on to study for a first degree will normally be eligible for a further, modified mandatory award for the final year or years of a designated first degree course, depending upon its duration. Local education authorities can make discretionary payments in respect of any other year. It is for individual institutions to decide whether to give exemption from any part of the course to students enrolling on a first degree course who have already completed an HND in the same subject.