Expenses on EU students could now heighten, with the Higher Education Minister, Bill Rammell, stating that around 6,000 students from the European Union would be entitled to receive £10 million as maintenance grants and £40 million as loans from the coming year.
This has ruffled feathers of the Tories that asserted that the huge amount of funds spent by the UK government on students hailing from other EU countries was a sheer waste. According to them, students coming to Britain had multiplied tremendously, and had overgrown government expectations. Student loan subsidies were expected to cost officials about £40m per year.
The maintenance grants given to EU students had been decided upon by a court verdict in the beginning of the year and the Department for Education and Skills calculated about 6,000 students (full-time) from English institutions to be eligible for the same. That would approximately cost about £10m in 2006-07, while £40m would be granted as loans to EU students, since loans would be conferred to them at same rates of interest as national students.
Rammell was quoted as saying, “The entitlement to a loan to cover tuition fees applies equally to all EU students in the same way that assistance provided by other member states will be available to UK students studying in those countries.” He added that this was no implication that English Students would be deprived of any of their rights. In fact, he said that EU students’ living expenses would earn the economy a good £270m every year. The Student Loans Company would organize for loan repayments and all people going abroad had to intimate their address to it.
Meanwhile, figures of the government’s expectations of the amount of EU students in British institutions had risen by 44% i.e. from 63000 to about 91,000 for the period 2003- 2007.
Contrarily, shadow spokesperson of higher education, Stephen O'Brien appeared worried at Rammel’s announcement and said, “How is the government going to make EU students repay their student loans once they return to their home country? How fair is it to ask the British taxpayer to subsidise the non-commercial rate of interest they are entitled to on their loan?” He believed that the government ought to give preference to UK students instead of going out of their way to help EU students and assume the risk of the repayment of their student loans.
Posted
on : Wed, 10 Aug 2005 18:35 GMT | Loans News
By : Salim Patel
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