Question to the Department for Education:

To ask His Majesty's Government how many tuition fee loans, and for how much in total, were provided to franchised delivery providers of education who are (1) registered with the Office for Students, and (2) non-registered, in the past three years.

The attached table shows the number of students in receipt of a tuition fee loan and the total amount of tuition fee loans paid on behalf of students studying at franchised providers in England, split by whether the franchised provider is registered with the Office for Students. This covers tuition fees paid by Student Finance England for the 2021/22, 2022/23 and 2023/24 academic years.

In franchising arrangements, tuition fees are paid directly to the lead provider, who often retains a portion before passing the remainder onto the franchised provider. The department does not collect data on the proportion of tuition fees retained by the lead provider. The tuition fee amounts presented in the table therefore overestimate the amount of tuition fee funding received by franchised providers.

Data captures loan payments made up to 31 August 2023 for the 2021/22 academic year and up to 31 August 2024 for the 2022/23 and 23/24 academic years. As the loan payment amounts for 2023/24 do not capture late payments, it is not appropriate to compare 2023/24 with previous years.