Question to the Department for Education:

To ask the Secretary of State for Education, what the annual cost is of providing student loan financing to students who are not UK citizens; and whether she has made an estimate of the potential impact of restricting student loan eligibility to British citizens on costs to her Department.

Higher education student finance is targeted on those persons with a lawful and substantial residential connection to the UK. To qualify, most persons must be ‘settled’ in the UK. There are limited exceptions to this, such as for individuals granted international protection by the Home Office, for example persons with refugee status, who may be eligible for support without meeting the standard residency and settlement criteria.

In the 2024/25 academic year, the Student Loans Company (SLC) made payments totalling £3,794 million for Fee and Maintenance Loans (full-time and part-time) to undergraduate students domiciled in England, Wales, Northern Ireland, and the EU who declared they were non-UK nationals.

Previous PQs have reported figures based on nationality as declared when creating a student finance account, rather than the verified status at loan approval. The SLC has robust procedures in place to check eligibility for student finance, including data-sharing with the Home Office and HM Passport Office. Eligibility is dependent on a successful identity check, immigration status and residency history. No funding is approved without complete, verified, and eligible nationality, status and residence history.

The department has not made any estimate of costs on the potential impact of restricting student loan eligibility to British citizens.