Question to the Department for Education:

To ask the Secretary of State for Education, whether she has made an assessment of the potential merits of allocating additional funding to support international students, in the context of the cost of living crisis.

To be eligible for home fee status and student support from Student Finance England, a student must be ordinarily and lawfully resident in England, and have ‘settled’ status or a recognised connection with the UK on the first day of the first academic year of the course. This includes persons who are covered by the EU Withdrawal Agreement, those who have long residence in this country or those who have been granted international protection by the Home Office.

Usually, students must also have been ordinarily resident in the UK throughout the three years immediately preceding that date. This ensures that the limited public funds available for student support are targeted at people with a lawful and substantial residential connection to the UK.

We have boosted our student premium by £15 million to help students who need extra support. This extra funding, now totalling £276 million, will complement the help universities are providing through their own bursary, scholarship and hardship support schemes. The department works with the Office for Students to ensure universities support students using both hardship funds and drawing on the student premium.

All households will save on their energy bills through the Energy Price Guarantee and the £400 Energy Bills Support Scheme discount. Students who buy their energy from a domestic supplier are eligible for the energy bills discount. The Energy Prices Act passed on 25 October 2022 includes the provision which requires landlords to pass any benefits they receive from energy price support onto end users, as appropriate. Further details of the requirements under this Act are set out in the legislation.

The Energy Bill Relief Scheme provides a price reduction to ensure that all businesses and other non-domestic customers are protected from high energy bills this winter, including universities and private purpose-built student accommodation providers.