A LOCAL student advocacy group has warned that a scrutiny review into lifelong learning in Jersey risks missing the point for many would-be students – by failing to look at access to higher education and how it is financed.
In a post on social media, the Student Loan Support Group Jersey described the Children, Education and Home Affairs Scrutiny Panel’s review of the provision of the lifelong vocational learning opportunities as “extremely limited”.
The group said it was “odd” that the panel’s terms of reference exclude student finance and higher education, despite vocational lifelong learning potentially encompassing higher-level qualifications.
The Student Loan Support Group described this as “very peculiar”, arguing that many vocational pathways – including areas such as nursing and engineering – are closely linked to higher education and student funding, making it difficult to consider one without the other.
The group pointed to submissions made to the panel by the Jersey International Centre of Advanced Studies, which argued that Jersey’s postgraduate bursary scheme “falls short in several key ways” – including a lack of a clear organising principle for how bursaries are awarded.
The Student Loan Support Group said these issues cannot be fully understood without examining funding structures alongside course provision.
The group also raised concerns about longer-term consequences of potentially restrictive funding policies, including the ongoing “bean drain” of young Islanders if students leave Jersey to secure financial support elsewhere.
The post asked: “Would our students want to leave the Island and become resident elsewhere to secure funding (and maybe their parents too) if, for instance, their particular talent for a subject wasn’t catered for?”
It comes after the most recent Children and Young People’s Survey found that nearly half (46%) of Year 10 and 12 students did not consider Jersey a viable place to build a life and career, and only 36% felt confident about their future in the Island.
And data from Statistics Jersey shows the number of Islanders in their 20s and 30s has dropped by 7% between 2017 and 2023, with a 13% decline 20- to 24-year-olds in Jersey.
The Student Loan Support Group also called for student funding to remain “for all who have the ability and desire to study”, not restricted to certain courses and certain places.
“Studying anything at a higher level requires effort,” the post said. “That’s easier if it’s a subject of interest and or enjoyment.
“What kind of employee does a lacklustre uninterested person in a career make? I’d suggest not a very good one!”
