Question to the Department for Education:

To ask the Secretary of State for Education, what equalities assessment his Department has undertaken on access to student finance for individuals of Muslim faith.

The department undertook equalities assessments on access to student finance for individuals of Muslim faith in November 2015 when introducing regulations to move from a system of maintenance grants to loans and in May 2016 when introducing the Bill which became the Higher Education Research Act 2017 which includes provisions to enable alternative student finance to be introduced. The assessments can be found at the following links:

https://assets.publishing.service.gov.uk/government/uploads/system/uploads/attachment_data/file/482110/bis-15-639-student-finance-equality-analysis.pdf.

https://assets.publishing.service.gov.uk/government/uploads/system/uploads/attachment_data/file/524226/bis-16-281-he-research-bill-equality-analysis.pdf.

The government’s assessment of the merits of alternative funding arrangements that is compatible with Sharia law for individuals of Muslim faith was made in its response to the consultation published in September 2014. The consultation response can be found at the follow link:

https://assets.publishing.service.gov.uk/government/uploads/system/uploads/attachment_data/file/349899/bis-14-984-government-response-to-a-consultation-on-a-sharia-compliant-alternative-finance-product.pdf.