Question to the Department for Education:

To ask Her Majesty’s Government how many of the tuition fee loans made by the Student Loans Company in (1) 2014–15, and (2) 2015–16, were for awards at a level below a full bachelors degree, such as foundation degrees, higher national diplomas, and other awards at level 5.

The Student Loans Company (SLC) administers student support for each of the UK Government administrations. Statistics on expenditure on student support are published annually in the Statistical First Release (SFR) ‘Student Support for Higher Education in England’. This is available in the ‘Official statistics’ section of the SLC’s website.

Provisional figures for the academic year 2014/15 were published in December 2015 and showed that tuition fee loans had been paid to Higher Education providers on behalf of 971,000 students. Of these, we estimate that 73,900 (8%) were for course aims at a level below a full Bachelor’s degree. Provisional figures for the academic year 2015/16 will be published later this year.