Asked by: Joe Robertson (Conservative - Isle of Wight East)
Question to the Department for Education:
To ask the Secretary of State for Education, what assessment she has made of the potential impact of the further education funding model on workforce planning.
Answered by Josh MacAlister - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department for Education)
We use the 16 to 19 funding formula to calculate an allocation of funding to each institution, each academic year for 16-19-year-olds. We calculate the basic funding for institutions using lagged student volumes and funding rates, which depend on the size of their students’ study programmes or T Levels.
The department issues allocations to institutions each spring setting out how much 16 to 19 funding they will receive in the coming academic year, which can help with planning.
The Adult Skills Fund engages adults aged 19 and above and provides the skills and learning they need to equip them for work, an apprenticeship or further learning. The recent move of adult skills to the Department for Work and Pensions provides an opportunity to strengthen the bonds between the Adult Skills Fund and progression into the labour market and will help ensure that the skills and employment systems are more fully aligned.
Further education providers are able to use this funding to support workforce and other costs.
Asked by: Justin Madders (Labour - Ellesmere Port and Bromborough)
Question to the Department for Education:
To ask the Secretary of State for Education, what assessment she has made of the potential impact of levels of (a) graduate debt and (b) recent media reports on levels of children from low-income households choosing to study at university.
Answered by Josh MacAlister - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department for Education)
The department is committed to addressing the persistent disadvantage gap in access to higher education (HE) and we are encouraged by the fact that disadvantaged young people continue to choose this pathway.
We are introducing targeted, means-tested maintenance grants of up to £1,000 per year from the 2028/29 academic year. These will be paid on top of existing loan amounts, increasing the cash in students’ pockets without increasing their debt.
Repayments are based on income, not loan amount or interest. Borrowers earning below the earnings threshold make no repayments. Any outstanding loan, including interest, is cancelled at the end of the term, with no detriment to the borrower, and debt is never passed to family members or descendants.
HE providers intending to charge higher level tuition fees must have an Office for Students approved access and participation plan articulating how they will improve equality of opportunity for underrepresented groups, including students from low-income backgrounds.
We have gone further and asked Professor Kathryn Mitchell to lead an HE Access and Participation Task and Finish Group to consider how to tackle systemic barriers across the journey into HE for disadvantaged students.
Asked by: Justin Madders (Labour - Ellesmere Port and Bromborough)
Question to the Department for Education:
To ask the Secretary of State for Education, what steps she is taking to ensure that students from low-income households are encouraged to consider university education.
Answered by Josh MacAlister - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department for Education)
The department is committed to addressing the persistent disadvantage gap in access to higher education (HE) and we are encouraged by the fact that disadvantaged young people continue to choose this pathway.
We are introducing targeted, means-tested maintenance grants of up to £1,000 per year from the 2028/29 academic year. These will be paid on top of existing loan amounts, increasing the cash in students’ pockets without increasing their debt.
Repayments are based on income, not loan amount or interest. Borrowers earning below the earnings threshold make no repayments. Any outstanding loan, including interest, is cancelled at the end of the term, with no detriment to the borrower, and debt is never passed to family members or descendants.
HE providers intending to charge higher level tuition fees must have an Office for Students approved access and participation plan articulating how they will improve equality of opportunity for underrepresented groups, including students from low-income backgrounds.
We have gone further and asked Professor Kathryn Mitchell to lead an HE Access and Participation Task and Finish Group to consider how to tackle systemic barriers across the journey into HE for disadvantaged students.
Asked by: Paula Barker (Labour - Liverpool Wavertree)
Question to the Department for Education:
To ask the Secretary of State for Education, what her Department’s estimate is of the (a) total level of student loan debt of Plan 2 students who started their course between 2012 and 2023 and (b) total level of student loan debt of Plan 2 students at the point that the freeze in repayment thresholds is planned to end in 2029-2030 for which the latest data is available.
Answered by Josh MacAlister - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department for Education)
The current mean average level of student loan balance of Plan 2 students who started their course between 2012 and 2023 to the nearest £100, as of 9 February, is £52,100 for England domiciled borrowers.
We do not hold a forecast for this average balance in 2029/30 on a consistent basis to the above figure provided by the Student Loans Company (SLC), as we forecast loan balances at the course level rather than borrower level, so cannot calculate the average balance by borrower.
The total level of student loan balances of Plan 2 students who started their course between 2012 and 2023 is £213 billion (to the nearest billion, as of 31 March 2025), for England and EU domiciled borrowers, as published here: https://www.gov.uk/government/statistics/student-loans-in-england-2024-to-2025/student-loans-in-england-financial-year-2024-25.
Our modelled forecast of estimated total loan balance at the end of 2029/30 is £249 billion (rounded to the nearest billion, estimate for 1 April 2030), as published here: https://explore-education-statistics.service.gov.uk/find-statistics/student-loan-forecasts-for-england/2024-25#explore-data-and-files.
The 2029/30 total loan balance figure is forecasted and not certain. More details on the methodology are here: https://explore-education-statistics.service.gov.uk/methodology/student-loan-forecasts-for-england.
Asked by: Paula Barker (Labour - Liverpool Wavertree)
Question to the Department for Education:
To ask the Secretary of State for Education, what is her Department’s estimate of the (a) average level of student loan debt of Plan 2 students who started their course between 2012 and 2023 and (b) average level of student loan debt of Plan 2 students at the point that the freeze in repayment thresholds is planned to end in 2029-2030 for which the latest data is available.
Answered by Josh MacAlister - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department for Education)
The current mean average level of student loan balance of Plan 2 students who started their course between 2012 and 2023 to the nearest £100, as of 9 February, is £52,100 for England domiciled borrowers.
We do not hold a forecast for this average balance in 2029/30 on a consistent basis to the above figure provided by the Student Loans Company (SLC), as we forecast loan balances at the course level rather than borrower level, so cannot calculate the average balance by borrower.
The total level of student loan balances of Plan 2 students who started their course between 2012 and 2023 is £213 billion (to the nearest billion, as of 31 March 2025), for England and EU domiciled borrowers, as published here: https://www.gov.uk/government/statistics/student-loans-in-england-2024-to-2025/student-loans-in-england-financial-year-2024-25.
Our modelled forecast of estimated total loan balance at the end of 2029/30 is £249 billion (rounded to the nearest billion, estimate for 1 April 2030), as published here: https://explore-education-statistics.service.gov.uk/find-statistics/student-loan-forecasts-for-england/2024-25#explore-data-and-files.
The 2029/30 total loan balance figure is forecasted and not certain. More details on the methodology are here: https://explore-education-statistics.service.gov.uk/methodology/student-loan-forecasts-for-england.
Asked by: Paula Barker (Labour - Liverpool Wavertree)
Question to the Department for Education:
To ask the Secretary of State for Education, what assessment her Department has made of the potential impact of maintaining thresholds for repayment of student loans between 2027-28 and 2029-30 for Plan 2 students who started their course between 2012 and 2023 on fair access to higher education for students from economically disadvantaged backgrounds.
Answered by Josh MacAlister - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department for Education)
Plan 2 loans were designed and implemented by previous governments. Students in England starting degrees under this government have different arrangements.
Lower earning graduates remain protected by this change. Graduates only begin repaying once their earnings exceed the threshold, paying 9% of income above that level. As repayments remain income-contingent if a borrower’s salary remains the same, their monthly repayments will also stay the same.
The department has produced the attached analysis regarding the lifetime impact of freezing the repayment and interest thresholds.
The department will release an equalities impact assessment, including the impact on lifetime repayments, alongside other borrower impacts for the Plan 2 repayment threshold and interest threshold freeze announced at the Autumn Budget. Published results may differ from those provided due to model and data updates.
Asked by: Paula Barker (Labour - Liverpool Wavertree)
Question to the Department for Education:
To ask the Secretary of State for Education, what assessment her Department has made of the potential impact of maintaining thresholds for repayment of student loans between 2027-28 and 2029-30 for Plan 2 students who started their course between 2012 and 2023 on fair access to higher education for women students.
Answered by Josh MacAlister - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department for Education)
Plan 2 loans were designed and implemented by previous governments. Students in England starting degrees under this government have different arrangements.
Lower earning graduates remain protected by this change. Graduates only begin repaying once their earnings exceed the threshold, paying 9% of income above that level. As repayments remain income-contingent if a borrower’s salary remains the same, their monthly repayments will also stay the same.
The department has produced the attached analysis regarding the lifetime impact of freezing the repayment and interest thresholds.
The department will release an equalities impact assessment, including the impact on lifetime repayments, alongside other borrower impacts for the Plan 2 repayment threshold and interest threshold freeze announced at the Autumn Budget. Published results may differ from those provided due to model and data updates.
Asked by: Mary Kelly Foy (Labour - City of Durham)
Question to the Department for Education:
To ask the Secretary of State for Education, what assessment her Department has made of the potential impact of the international student levy on university incomes.
Answered by Josh MacAlister - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department for Education)
The International Student Levy will require higher education (HE) providers to pay a flat fee of £925 per international student per year. An impact analysis of the levy published in November 2025 estimated the income losses to the HE sector from the levy in isolation to be £270 million in its first year. The full impact analysis is available here: https://consult.education.gov.uk/international-student-levy-unit/international-student-levy/supporting_documents/international-student-levy-impact-analysispdf.
HE providers are independent from government and as such are responsible for managing their own finances. The department has announced increases to tuition fee limits in line with forecast inflation for the 2025/26, 2026/27, and 2027/28 academic years. We will also legislate, when parliamentary time allows, to increase tuition fee caps automatically for future academic years.
Over the next five years, tuition fee limit uplifts could generate an additional £6 billion for HE providers, significantly outweighing the currently projected less than £1 billion cost of the levy. This approach ensures the sector benefits from compounding annual increases, delivering growing resources to support quality education and innovation.
Asked by: Luke Evans (Conservative - Hinckley and Bosworth)
Question to the Department for Education:
To ask the Secretary of State for Education, what steps she is taking to ensure [i] comparability of skills funding between mayoral combined authorities and non mayoral combined authorities and [ii] that skills funding is used to ensure the upskilling of local communities.
Answered by Josh MacAlister - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department for Education)
Approximately 68% of the Adult Skills Fund is currently devolved to 11 strategic authorities, 1 local authority and the Greater London Authority. From August 2026, a further 4 strategic authorities and 3 local authorities will receive this funding, taking the proportion to around 73%. Where funding is not devolved, the Department for Work and Pensions continue to administer it.
The funding allocation methodology is the same for mayoral and non-mayoral strategic authorities. However, as set out in the English Devolution White Paper, areas with a mayor have a single consolidated pot of adult skills funding with no ringfences.
To ensure that devolved skills funding meets the needs of local economies, in devolved areas each strategic authority is expected to develop and deliver a Strategic Skills Plan. This plan is informed by the region’s Local Skills Improvement Plan (LSIP) and Local Growth Plan.
LSIPs set out the skills needs of an area and the changes required to better align skills provision with employer needs. In both mayoral and non-mayoral areas, the strategic authority works jointly with the designated employer representative body to develop and implement the plan.
Asked by: Luke Evans (Conservative - Hinckley and Bosworth)
Question to the Department for Education:
To ask the Secretary of State for Education, what assessment she has made of the potential impact of changes to Part 2 student loan repayments and the freezing of interest thresholds on [a] women and [b] students with disabilities.
Answered by Josh MacAlister - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department for Education)
We inherited a Plan 2 loan system that was devised and implemented by the previous government, and there have not been retrospective changes to repayments. Students sign the terms and conditions of the student loan plan type available at the time of their studies before any money is paid to them. Student loan terms and conditions make clear that the conditions of the loan may change in line with the regulations that govern the loans.
There has also been no freezing of interest rate threshold. Interest accrues on loan balances at a rate of Retail Price Index (RPI) to RPI+3% until the loan has been repaid in full or is cancelled. Borrowers on Plan 2 terms have interest applied at RPI only if earnings fall below the repayment threshold and interest rates do not impact monthly repayments made by borrowers.
If a borrower becomes disabled and permanently unfit for work, loan balances, including interest, may be written off. For all borrowers, any outstanding loan, including interest accrued, will be cancelled after the loan term ends, and debt is never passed on to family members or descendants.