The Student Loan Support Group, formed earlier this year after scores of students and their families were left in thousands of pounds of debt following a UK government mix-up, say that the Island’s student finance system is outdated and as a result children are being denied the opportunity to attend university.
Penny Carter, a member of the group, said the States have three options – to introduce a tax similar to the proposed liquid waste or health charges to subsidise higher education, start a viable and up-to-date loan scheme, or ‘the Council of Ministers need to be upfront with the Island and accept higher education is only for the wealthy’, she said.
Jersey’s student finance works on a complicated means-tested grant system, so any money given does not have to be paid back.
The level of support a family receives depends on a combination of their income and net assets.
- Jersey students who started their courses after 2012 pay between £6,157 and £24,065 in tuition fees per year
- A recent study showed that for essentials like accommodation, food, study materials and travel, first-year students at UK universities pay an average of between £167 and £287 per week
- Over the course of an average 40-week year, essential costs vary between an average of between £6,680 and £11,480
- For tuition and essential costs, first-year students beginning in 2014 are therefore likely to be paying between £12,837 and £35,545 per year[/breakout]
Families earning below £26,750 are eligible to receive the maximum £9,000 help towards tuition fees and £5,500 maintenance grant to help with accommodation and food.
Islanders can also get a loan from NatWest up to £1,500 a year.
Mrs Carter added that she and other campaigners had met Education Minister Rod Bryans as well as his predecessors, Patrick Ryan, James Reed and the late Mike Vibert over the past decade but nothing had changed.
In a letter, published on page 11 of today’s JEP, the SLSP, which has nearly 600 members, say some families are being forced to pay fees that equate to the cost of a ‘reasonable size house’ to fund their child’s education.
A Freedom of Information request revealed that the number of sixth form students advancing to higher education away from the Island has dropped by over 20 per cent since 2011 from 244 to 195 last year.
In 2012 university fees were increased to the maximum £9,000.
Mrs Carter, who has children who have attended university, said: ‘The only options for some parents is to re-mortgage their home, take out a second mortgage or use funds from their pensions and then have to rely on their children when they retire.’
Last year the JEP revealed that 129 students from Jersey and Guernsey had been incorrectly awarded loans by the Student Loans Company despite not being eligible.
After realising their mistake, the SLC, which provides financial help for students in the UK, Northern Ireland and the EU, demanded that the money be returned immediately.
Last week it emerged that only £92,217.58 of the £722,358.90 paid out in error had been reclaimed. Fifty families have now been referred to debt collectors.
Mrs Carter said people turning to the SLC was a direct consequence of there being no other options in the Island.
There are a number of tricks and easy money-saving tips that can help students stretch their cash that extra bit further:
- Take full advantage of all voucher books, coupons and discount deals handed out during freshers
- Find out which barbers, salons, cafes, sandwich shops, restaurants and bars in your town offer student discount. Not all of them advertise but a large number of places will offer some kind of deal
- Buy books second hand from the student union or Amazon
- Use Skype to phone home
- Buy a young persons rail card, which costs £30 a year and saves a third on all train fares
- Flybe gives Jersey students 40 kg baggage allowance for the price of 20 kg
- TV licences can be refunded for the summer months
- Watching online catch-up television does not require a television licence
- If money is tight, write down a list of every penny spent. You will soon find areas where you can make cutbacks
- Never go food shopping when you are hungry
- Keep on top of your bank balance and do not wait until the morning after the night out to check it[/breakout]
A mother-of-two, who is also a member of the SLSP but asked not to be named, said she has one child at university and another who is set to go next year.
She added that the human rights of some children in Jersey were being neglected.
‘We have the Education Law here that says the minister has a duty to educate children.
We have the Human Rights Jersey Law and through that we adhere to the European Convention on Human Rights which says students have a right to higher education if it is available.
We argue that by denying students higher education it is breaching their human rights,’ she said.
Earlier this month Deputy Jeremy Maçon had an amendment to the Medium Term Financial Plan which would have raised funds for higher eduction rejected.
He proposed that £1.4 million, which has been allocated to the Economic and Productivity Growth Drawdown Provision for 2016, be instead used to provide funding for university students from lower- and middle-income families.
During the debate the Chief Minister, Ian Gorst, agreed to look at setting up a new funding mechanism for future university students early next year.
The unnamed member of the SLSP said: ‘That makes me hope but it needs to be a suitable solution.
The fact it is being launched next year makes me think it will not be ready for students in September.’
The Chief Minister was on annual leave and unavailable for comment before publication.
Jersey students left in debt to the tune of tens of thousands of pounds because of a UK loan error were allowed to apply for finance in Jersey despite the window for applications being shut.
Hundreds of students in the Channel Islands were affected by a UK government mistake which meant that they were incorrectly awarded a total of £700,000 in loans.
Earlier in the year the JEP reported that 40 people in Jersey are known to have been affected, and the Student Loans Company – the UK department responsible for supporting students in higher education – threatened many with court action if they do not repay the money immediately.
But in January Andy Gibbs, head of careers and learning support at Careers Jersey, said that students who received UK loans in error would be allowed to apply for student funding in the form of a grant from the States to help offset the cost of repayments, as long as they are eligible.
Mr Gibbs has been in contact with Student Finance England, a branch of the Student Loans Company, and the UK department for Business, Innovation and Skills to try to persuade them to show some leniency over the issue.
He proposed that the loans could be honoured on this occasion, but even though the UK government department admitted that it was their error when processing Jersey postcodes, they insisted that the money had to be paid back immediately.
Mr Gibbs said: ‘Financial support is difficult for us, but students who are eligible for funding can still apply and we would consider their application even at this stage. But there is also an appeals process with the Student Loans Company, and we advise Islanders to make sure they make it to the third stage. I know someone who has been successful.’
Mr Gibbs explained the appeals process, saying that stages one and two were assessed my members of Student Finance England and the third stage was overseen by an independent body.
Islander Claire Matthews, who is studying at Leeds University and was incorrectly awarded a loan by the Student Loans Company of about £18,000 which was later repealed, said that she had been threatened with court action.
‘They withdrew all my fees from the university and I was told I couldn’t graduate until the fees were paid,’ she added.
‘My parents have managed to make arrangements to pay my fees. The UK authorities are now hounding me to repay the maintenance loan immediately, which is impossible as I am a student. They are threatening me with court even though I have tried to assure them I plan to keep to my side of the agreement, which is to pay them back when I start working.’
THE introduction of a student loan scheme, which is being considered by Education Minister Rod Bryans, could be seen as something of a mixed blessing.
As Malcolm Ferey, the head of the Citizens’ Advice Bureau, has said, loans would enable more people to go to university.
But they could also be a nail in the coffin of ‘free’ further education and saddle graduates with debt, possibly for decades after they leave university.
As Mr Ferey acknowledges, parents, even those on relatively good incomes, are struggling to pay for their child or children to go away to study. It is clear that the current system of grants is not offering the help some families need.
Universities must not be the preserve of the rich. Intelligence and wealth are not synonymous.
It is reassuring that Deputy Bryans has confirmed that the introduction of loans would not have an impact on the grant system.
Amid calls that Jersey should not be a slave to UK values and practices, the university grant system is a beacon of light which makes this Island stand apart from the UK and other jurisdictions.
The unfortunate reality is that fully States-funded university tuition for all is a luxury we cannot afford.
Deputy Bryans and his team at Education are therefore right to consider different funding models. They know the importance of balancing the interests of students with those of taxpayers generally, and must find a system which suits Jersey.
In the UK, students only start paying back their loans when they earn a certain amount – and some never reach that threshold. Loans seem to be the best way forward, but the repayment terms must be fair to all, and that could mean asking for a parental guarantee.
