Welsh Government | Student Support Applications for Higher Education, Update at End of February 2011

Student Support Applications for Higher Education, Update at End of February 2011

The latest statistics on applications for student finance and Tuition Fee Loans, and Tuition Fee Grants awarded, produced by the Welsh Assembly Government, were released on 10 March 2011 according to the arrangements approved by the UK Statistics Authority.

Statistics on applications for student finance and Tuition Fee Loans, and Tuition Fee Grants awarded, include data for Welsh domiciled students (wherever they study) and EU domiciled students studying in Wales, for the period up to 27 February 2011 (the last Sunday of the month). The latest release updates the statistics previously released on 10 February 2011.

In 2006/07, loans to cover the cost of tuition fees became available for students. This means that tuition fee payment can be deferred until students have left higher education and are earning over £15,000. New system Welsh and EU domiciled students studying in Wales (i.e. those entering the new support arrangements introduced in September 2006) were subject to tuition fees of £1,200. Welsh domiciled students studying in England were subject to variable tuition fees of up to £3,000. In 2007/08, variable tuition fees (up to £3,290 in 2010/11) were introduced in Wales affecting all students who started their courses from 2006/07 onwards. Pre-2010/11 new system Welsh and EU domiciled students(1) who study in Wales are eligible for a Tuition Fee Grant (non-repayable) of up to £1,980 (2010/11 level), dependent on the institution they attend.

The key points from the latest release are:

In the 2010/11 academic year to date, a total of 57,295 applications had been received for student support in Wales.
47,600 applications had been received for Tuition Fee Loans; 23,470 students had been awarded a Tuition Fee Grant.

Please note that the format of this output (previously entitled “Applications for Student Finance, Tuition Fee Loans and Tuition Fee Grants Awarded in Wales”) has changed since the previous month, although the data items published remain the same. The output has now changed from a Headline Statistics format to a Statistical First Release.

(1) Continuing students who started a course of Higher Education on or after 1 September 2006 but before 1 September 2010.