- 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 such as accommodation, food, study materials and travel, first-year students at UK universities pay an average of between £167 and £287 per week
- In the course of a 40-week year, essential costs vary between £6,680 and £11,480
- For tuition and essential costs, first-year students beginning in 2014 are likely to pay between £12,837 and £35,545 per year[/breakout]
The member of the Student Loan Support Group, which was formed earlier this year after scores of students and their families were left in thousands of pounds of debt following a mix-up by the UK’s Student Loans Company, has spoken out after Education director Justin Donovan claimed that Islanders were clearly told that they did not qualify for funding.
During a public hearing last week Mr Donovan told the Education and Home Affairs Scrutiny Panel that students and parents were advised not to apply for funding from the company.
However, one member of the support group, who has asked to remain anonymous, said Mr Donovan was wrong to say that it was made clear because she was told by the UK company that her son was eligible to apply.
She said that the Education Department did not provide her with any further information when she questioned them about it.
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]
Jersey’s student finance works on a 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.
Families earning below £26,750 are eligible to receive up to £7,500 to help towards tuition fees and £5,500 in maintenance grants to help with accommodation and food.
‘I phoned the Student Loans Company and they said that I could apply for a UK loan.
‘I called the Education Department and they said it was strange and they had always been told that you couldn’t receive it.’
She added that it was ‘not surprising’ that parents in Jersey and Guernsey had made the mistake in applying for loans because the SLC website does not make it clear that Channel Island students are not entitled to receive any funding.
‘It was designed for when the fees were very different,’ she said.
‘We will not give up.
‘We will keep on at them until they do something.’
STUDENTS left in debt to the tune of tens of thousands of pounds because of a UK loan error will be allowed to apply for finance in Jersey despite the window for applications being shut, a senior Education Department official said earlier this year.
Andy Gibbs, head of careers and learning support at Careers Jersey, said in January 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 had 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.
IT is hard to express anything but sympathy for those families caught up in the middle of an administrative error over student loans handed out last year.
Nearly 50 families across the Channel Islands now have UK debt collection agencies breathing down their necks after students were ‘accidentally allocated’ funds to pay for their time at university.
For years a separate system has existed for students from Jersey and Guernsey to help them meet the huge financial burden of furthering their education. But a mistake from the Student Loans Company in the UK meant that nearly £700,000 was handed out ‘in error’ to islanders.
According to data released to the JEP only eight students and their families have managed to repay the money in full, five of whom are from Jersey. The remainder that have not yet negotiated a payment plan with the company are now being actively pursued for the funds and face the very real threat of legal action.
Usually the loans are repaid over the course of several years, after graduation.
But the problem that some families now face is that the money has already been spent as those students affected are now entering their second or third years at university, or even their first year of employment and paying back this money will be very difficult indeed.
One father of four has spoken today of his frustration at the situation, particularly as the SLC confirmed his son was eligible for financial help.
Citizens Advice Bureau chief executive Malcolm Ferey is right in warning those caught up in this saga to contact the SLC as soon as possible because once an individual’s credit rating is affected, it can be very difficult to undo the damage.
An error is an error, and we all make them. But is it right to punish and harass these students at such a testing time in their lives?
Perhaps the relevant CABs in each island, or governments, could act on behalf of all of these families affected and negotiate for the entire group?
A joined-up approach will have better outcome for all.
