Deputy Louise Doublet said the Education and Home Affairs Scrutiny Panel had questioned, and will continue to question, Education Minister Rod Bryans on the matter.
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]
She plans to raise the issue of higher education funding at a hearing with the minister on Monday.
Last month members of the Student Loans Support Group – which was set up by disillusioned parents who feel higher education is now only an option for the wealthy – called for the States to introduce a viable student loans system or a tax to raise funds to subsidise higher education.
The current system in Jersey is grant-based and is means-tested using a student’s parental income.
The money does not have to be paid back.
During the debate on the Medium Term Financial Plan last month, Chief Minister Ian Gorst said he would bring a proposition concerning student finance to the Assembly at the start of next year.
Asked what she, or the panel, would do to improve the system in Jersey, Deputy Doublet said it was wrong for her to comment, as it was the panel’s role to be impartial.
‘What I can say is that higher education is very important.
‘We should be supporting students that want to advance to it in every way we can,’ she said.
The quarterly Scrutiny hearing, which starts at 10 am, is due to be held in the States Building and is open to the public.
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.
- 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]
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.
