Question to the Department for Education:

To ask the Secretary of State for Education, if she will consider the potential merits of introducing a minimum requirement to qualify for student loans of (a) grades EEE at A-level and (b) equivalent grades at (i) T-level and (ii) Level 3 Diploma.

The government consulted on whether there was a case, in principle, for a Minimum Eligibility Requirement for access to student finance for degree-level study. In the Higher Education (HE) Reform policy statement of 17 July, the department made an announcement to not proceed with such a requirement at this time.

The government is delivering on its manifesto commitment to drive up quality and tackle pockets of poor provision in the HE sector. The department has worked with the Office for Students (OfS) to set stringent minimum thresholds for student outcomes and the OfS has introduced face to face investigations where there is a risk of breach of these expectations.

The department wants to see recruitment limits used to reduce the growth of low-quality courses, and graduate earnings to be part of the quality regime, so that students can be confident in the quality of the course that they have chosen.