Education and Skills Committee

Meeting date: Wednesday, November 14, 2018

Official Report 739KB pdf

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Subordinate Legislation

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Education (Student Loans) (Miscellaneous Amendments) (Scotland) Regulations 2018 (SSI 2018/307)

The second agenda item is subordinate legislation that is subject to negative procedure. Do members have any comments to make on the Education (Student Loans) (Miscellaneous Amendments) (Scotland) Regulations 2018?

The recommendation to reduce the maximum student loan repayment period to 30 years makes sense. If that becomes policy, that is fine.

I have a question about the provision for education psychology students. The clerk’s note says that that provision

“will run for an initial three years.”

However, are we deciding, at the same time, that somebody who trains as an educational psychologist will not be able to access postgraduate loans? If the support is provided for three years, is there a danger that, at the end of the process, somebody who trains as an educational psychologist will not be guaranteed a student loan?

I am interested in the policy thinking around that. I presume that nobody wilfully takes on extra debt. The provision is described as financial support, but I am talking about access to a loan during a postgraduate course. We are told that the Government does not want duplication of funding, but one method of funding is a grant—which I think we would welcome—whereas the other is a loan that is not compulsory. I wonder whether the loan should have remained as a safety net.

I also wonder about the Scottish Government’s other policy choices. I do not know why it has not taken the opportunity to increase the threshold to £25,000 until 2021 when everyone accepts that the current threshold is quite low. Can you let me know the mechanism for getting that information, convener? I think that we can object to the regulations in the chamber, but I do not feel strongly about the matter. There are some quite important provisions in the regulations, but I am interested in why the Government is not increasing the threshold to £25,000. I think that the policy intent is to say, “Not until 2021,” but I do not know the logic of that and I would like to find that out.

I re-emphasise the point that I have made about support for educational psychology students. If what looks like an interesting package of support is for an initial three years, what guarantees are there subsequent to that? I presume that the Government would have to draft another instrument, at a later stage, to allow educational psychologists to access student loans.

I cannot answer any of those points. Are we content to write to the Government and delay our decision on the instrument until next week’s meeting?

I think you are absolutely right to write to the Government, convener, but I would not want to delay the really positive provision reducing the maximum repayment period to 30 years.

We can seek some clarification.

We can seek some clarification, but I would not want to stand in the road of that provision being agreed to. If the instrument is implemented, nothing will happen to affect the two issues that I have raised, but we could still write to the Government on those issues.

You are suggesting that we write to the Government for clarification on those points but that we agree to the instrument as it stands.

I think that we have to agree not to say anything about it—is that not the procedure?

Is everybody content to do that?

Members indicated agreement.

Are there any other points that members want to raise with the minister?

Members: No.

That will be the way forward, then. That concludes the public part of today’s meeting and we move into private session.

11:43 Meeting continued in private until 12:05.