HC Deb 11 February 2004 vol 417 cc1483-4W
Mr. Allen

To ask the Secretary of State for Education and Skills how many and what percentage of families have residual incomes which would mean that their children(a) would be entitled to claim a full grant and (b) would be entitled to claim a partial grant under the terms of the Higher Education Bill, broken down by constituency. [152620]

Alan Johnson

The information requested is not available by constituency. Based on the proposals for the single combined up-front grant of £2,700 in 2006/07, as detailed in the Departmental paper "Moving toward a single combined grant for higher education", we would expectaround 30 per cent. of students to be entitled to a full grant (of which we expect around two thirds to be dependent students); a further50–55 per cent. to be entitled to a full or partial grant.

Future numbers and proportions of students receiving grants also depend on hanges in demand for higher education and the future rate of growth of real incomes.

Mr. Austin Mitchell

To ask the Secretary of State for Education and Skills (1) what arrangements he intends to put in place to recover fees and loans paid for study at British universities to students from other EU countries; and what plans he has to refuse admission to other EU students unless such recovery arrangements are accepted by the countries from which they come; [154241]

(2) what discussions he intends to have with other EU Governments on putting in place the machinery for recovery from their country of fees and loans made to students at British universities through (a) the tax system of their country of origin and (b) the tax system of other countries in which they work. [154242]

Alan Johnson

The Student Loans Company (SLC) are responsible for ensuring repayments are made when they fall due, and have well established procedures for recovering loans from graduates living and working outside the UK. All students taking out a loan are required to sign a declaration agreeing to repay, even if they move abroad. The SLC have a range of sanctions that can be imposed on defaulters. Officials and SLC are exploring ways to ensure the most robust and effective loan recovery mechanisms are in place. There are no plans which would allow HEIs to refuse admission to EU students.