Question to the Department for Education:

To ask the Secretary of State for Education, what assessment he has made of the effect of interest-bearing student loans on the number of Muslim students entering Higher Education over the last seven years.

The government published research in May 2019 on higher education and how religious beliefs and the current student finance system influence these decisions. This research is available here: https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/alternative-student-finance-current-and-future-students-perspectives.

The government has also assessed the effect of interest-bearing loans on Muslim students in the impact assessment for the Higher Education and Research Act, which included provisions to enable the introduction of an Alternative Student Finance (ASF) product. The impact assessment was published in December 2017 and is available here: https://www.legislation.gov.uk/ukia/2017/182/pdfs/ukia_20170182_en.pdf.

The government is considering the ASF product carefully alongside its other priorities and will provide a further update with the full and final conclusion of the Post-18 Review of Education and Funding. The interim report of the review was published on 21 January 2021, and the review is scheduled to conclude alongside the next multi-year Spending Review. An update on the ASF product will be provided at that time.