Mr. RobertsonTo ask the Secretary of State for Education and Employment if he will remove parental income as a means of assessing student fees payable; and if he will make a statement.[136979]
§ Mr. Wicks[holding answer 8 November 2000]: No. The current assessment system is working well and ensures that currently about a third of dependent students from lower income families do not make any contribution to tuition fees, and I expect this to rise to some two fifths from September 2001 as a result of a change to the contribution threshold. This is in the context of over 40 per cent. of all students making no contribution to tuition fees under the present system, rising to about 50 per cent. from September 2001. The new student finance arrangements that we introduced share the cost of higher education fairly between students, their families and taxpayers generally, and provide essential resources for investment in universities and colleges.