Chamber and committees

The amount of student loan that a graduate repays each month and the period of time over which repayments are made are linked to the level of the borrower’s income and the amount borrowed. Under the support arrangements introduced in 2001-02, many students who will be liable to pay the endowment when they graduate will have been eligible to receive the Young Students Bursary in place of part of their loan entitlement. Most liable graduates will have borrowed less under the current arrangements than they would have under the previous system. No student should have borrowed more.

The rate of interest applied to student loans is equal to the annual change in the retail price index. This is applied to maintain the value of the amount borrowed in real terms.

1990 - 9.8%.

1991 - 5.8%

1992 - 3.9%

1993 - 1.2%

1994 - 2.3%

1995 - 3.5%

1996 - 2.7%

1997 - 2.6%

1998 - 3.5%

1999 - 2.1%

2000 - 2.6%

2001 - 2.3%

2002 - 1.3%

2003 - 3.1%

2004 - 2.6%

The number of students aged 25 and over receiving support from the Student Awards Agency for Scotland has remained broadly unchanged since the introduction of a wholly loan based system of living cost support in 1999. This would suggest that potential mature students do not regard the current student loans arrangement as a disincentive.

The first debt sale was concluded in March 1998 being sold to Greenwich Natwest (GNW), a division of National Westminster, now Royal Bank of Scotland (RBoS). SLC were appointed to undertake the day-to-day administration. The original contract was for five years from March 1998 and SLC successfully negotiated renewal for a further five years administration period commencing March 2003. There are no variations in the contract.

The second portfolio was concluded in March 1999 and the purchaser was a consortium comprising Deutsche Bank, AG London and Nationwide Building Society. SLC were awarded a five year contract to administer the portfolio. The original contract expired in March 2004 and the debt owners took the decision to award the contract for administration to another agency. The key terms and conditions of the loan are all protected.

Student loans have been an integral part of an affordable student funding system since 1990. The most recent information from the Higher Education Statistics Agency and the Scottish Further Education Council, gives details over the five year period from 1998-99 until 2002-03. This shows that the number of students from ethnic minority backgrounds who have entered higher education in this period has increased and continues to exceed the proportion of the general population who are from an ethnic minority background.

Education policy is set by ministers. We work with others, local authorities, teachers organisations and many others, including philanthropic foundations who are committed to improving the quality of Scottish education, to deliver these policies. The precise contribution of other bodies varies according to each circumstance, but philanthropic foundations have already shown they can bring new ideas as well as financial resources, which help achieve educational improvements.

Eligibility is restricted because the number of eligible teachers is controlled by the Scottish  Higher Education Funding Council to match teacher workforce requirements.

It would be possible to extend eligibility to include all teacher education institutions elsewhere in the UK, but we would not be able to limit eligibility to individual institutions. We would therefore be opening ourselves to an indeterminate number of applications, for the most part without teaching vacancies being available.

We regularly review eligibility for the induction scheme, but it is extremely unlikely it will ever be extended to guarantee places to individuals graduating from elsewhere in the UK.

Scotland has been successful in attracting international students for a number of years. According to the most recent figures available, there were 7,486 students from Asia studying at Scottish higher education institutions in 2002-03. It is estimated that around 390 of those students were studying for the MBA qualification. The Fresh Talent initiative was launched in February 2004 and it is not possible to report on its impacts in relation to student recruitment atthis stage.

The Fresh Talent Scotland Scheme, which will allow non European Economic Area graduates from Scottish higher education institutions to remain and work in Scotland for up to two years, comes into effect from summer 2005. It is not possible to determine how many students from Asia will benefit from the scheme at this time. 

The Scottish Executive has no functions in relation to UK immigration policy. UK Visas have confirmed that the information requested is not held centrally.