Question to the Department for Education:

To ask the Secretary of State for Education, how many applications were (a) received and (b) accepted for the Higher Education Short Courses trial in the (a) 2021-2022 and (b) 2022-23 academic years; and how many and what proportion of people with accepted applications applied for (i) fee and (ii) maintenance loans.

The higher education short courses trial, which began roll-out over the course of the 2022/23 academic year, has seen 22 providers develop over 100 short courses.

As of June 2023, there have been 240 applications to providers for designated short courses, which have resulted in 126 enrolments. The Student Loans Company (SLC) has received 75 applications for HESC tuition-fee loans, of which 34 have resulted in payment. Maintenance loans are not available for higher education short courses.

This is the first time that a tuition fee loan from the SLC has been available to students applying for HESC. Although the department is only offering tuition fee loans for the courses within this trial, applying for tuition fee loans is not the only way to fund a HESC, with some students choosing to work with their employer to secure funding, some paying for it themselves, and some providers covering the costs of the course to test demand for short courses.

The numbers of applications for loans for the trial only test demand for loan funding and are nor the best or only indicator of demand. There is a wide range of evidence that individuals want to pursue technical and vocational education, sometimes modularly, at Levels 4 and 5 such as uptake of Advanced Learner Loans, uptake of Foundation Degrees, HNDs and HNCs, data from the In-Work Skills pilot and growing numbers of approved HTQs.