But Nicola Heath, founder of the Student Loans Support Group, which has campaigned extensively for better funding options for university, has said she is reluctant to get too excited about the proposed plans until details are released.
Chief Minister Ian Gorst said that the Student Finance Sub Committee, which includes ministers from Education, the Treasury Department and the Chief Minister, were looking at five options to tackle Jersey’s student financing problem – two of which were being scrutinised in further detail.
The Senator did not go into details about any of the plans at an Education and Home Affairs Scrutiny Panel this week, but he did say that the options that were likely to come forward for consultation next month ‘involve a type of student loan’.
He added that simply extending the current grant scheme, or scrapping it and having just a loan option, or having a hybrid of the two, were all options.
Following the meeting Mrs Heath said: ‘It’s great they say we are going to have something by September, but we need to know what it’s actually going to look like.’
She also said that for students applying to universities now, the timing left them in a precarious situation whereby they might be counting on a loan system being in place by September. But, she added, there was a risk that proposals might not be agreed by the States.
During the scrutiny panel hearing, Senator Gorst also admitted that depending on which future funding option was chosen by the States, if any, the Island’s grant scheme could be stopped, or fewer Islanders could have access to it – a move likely to affect low-income families.
Currently the States offers money to families in the form of grants based on a household’s income. The lowest-income households – those that earn less than £34,000 a year – can receive up to £9,250 towards tuition fees and up to £6,000 towards maintenance costs. Any household earning more than £101,000 is not entitled to receive any financial assistance and students from Jersey cannot access the UK loan scheme.
Asked by panel member Deputy Louise Doublet whether a loan scheme might come at a cost and affect grants that were available, the Chief Minister said: ‘It depends which option you go for.’
When asked for a timescale about when a loan scheme could be introduced, if agreed by the States, the Senator said he was working towards ‘next September’.
‘I am of the view there will be a loan scheme introduced, it’s just a case of which option is chosen,’ he later added.
