Current status: Answered by Jamie Hepburn on 3 February 2023
To ask the Scottish Government what consideration it has given to the introduction of student loans for people undertaking PhD study, similar to those introduced in other parts of the UK.
The Scottish Government does not have any immediate plans to directly fund PhD students through the introduction of student loans.
We do however support postgraduate research by providing universities with funding to support the training of PhD students through the core research and knowledge exchange grants from the Scottish Funding Council. One of these is specifically aimed at PhD training and support: the Research Postgraduate Grant which is £36.9m in 2022-23.