Students: Finance

As part of our work to protect public money in higher education (HE), we take swift and proportionate action to identify fraud and error in the student finance system.

Where fraud or error has been identified, students may be required to repay the funding they have received in error. The Student Loans Company (SLC) will agree affordable and flexible repayment plans with students, with low or deferred repayments where students face hardship, so that no one is asked to repay more than they can reasonably afford.

Where the fault is due to provider error, we expect education providers to put in place appropriate hardship support so that students receive the help they need.

This is essential to safeguard students and taxpayers’ money and ensure the system operates fairly for all.

To provide clarity for students affected by the weekend course issue, we have instructed the SLC to recover loan payments through the student loan system in line with existing loan terms, and to pause any action on recovery of targeted grant funding until at least September while we review the position.

The SLC is also working closely with providers who have misclassified weekend courses to identify students transferring onto eligible courses and the department is working to understand the number of students who will remain on distance learning courses and so do not receive additional maintenance grants and loans (in addition to tuition fees loans, and Disabled Students’ Allowance where relevant).

As part of our work to reinforce protections to public money, we are strengthening oversight and assurance to ensure course classifications are applied consistently, transparently, and in a way that cannot be misused or inadvertently misapplied in ways that mislead students and risk public funds. The Office for Students (OfS) is looking at this issue closely and will consider whether further regulatory engagement or action is required. Additionally, the department is reviewing the Education (Student Support) Regulations 2011 in relation to attendance and distance-learning classifications and will update the sector as this work progresses.

Much of the affected provision is delivered under franchise. This is a part of the sector where the department and the OfS have highlighted significant concerns in terms of oversight and exploitation and where we are already tightening oversight. My right hon. Friend, the Secretary of State for Education, wrote to the HE sector on 9th December 2025 setting out her expectations to identify abuse of the HE system and provide students and taxpayers with assurance that money is being well spent.