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Questions and answers

Parliamentary questions can be asked by any MSP to the Scottish Government or the Scottish Parliamentary Corporate Body. The questions provide a means for MSPs to get factual and statistical information.

Written questions must be answered within 10 working days (20 working days during recess)
Other questions such as Topical, Portfolio, General and First Minister's Question Times are taken in the Chamber

Urgent Questions aren't included in the Question and Answers search. There is a SPICe fact sheet listing Urgent and emergency questions.

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Question reference: S3W-13912

Asked by: Claire Baker, MSP for Mid Scotland and Fife, Scottish Labour
Date lodged: Thursday, 05 June 2008
Current Status: Answered by Fiona Hyslop on 16 June 2008

To ask the Scottish Executive what estimate it has made of the number of full-time students who will see reductions in the financial support that they receive from government in each of the next three years due to efficiency savings in SAAS eligibility.

Question reference: S3W-13911

Asked by: Claire Baker, MSP for Mid Scotland and Fife, Scottish Labour
Date lodged: Thursday, 05 June 2008
Current Status: Answered by Fiona Hyslop on 16 June 2008

To ask the Scottish Executive how many full-time students will receive full financial support from government in each of the next three years if earnings rise at the average rate for 2007-08.

The following table shows the number of students receiving full support from the Student Awards Agency for Scotland (SAAS) in academic year 2006-07. It also shows the approximate number of students in both 2007-08 and 2008-09 who would receive full support if earnings rose by the 2006-7 average of 3.1% (based on the Annual Survey of Hours and Earnings, ASHE).

Academic Year	Students Receiving Full Support from SAAS
2006-07	35,310
2007-08	35,267
2008-09	35,154

Source: Students receiving support, SAAS, higher education students, Higher Education Statistics Agency and Scottish Funding Council. Student numbers are rounded to the nearest five and percentages to the nearest whole number.

Notes:

1. “Students receiving any support” includes Scottish students studying at institutions elsewhere in the UK and EU domiciled students. “Any support” refers to tuition fees, tuition fee loans, awards or maintenance loans.

2. Constant student numbers are assumed from one year to the next.

Students receiving full support have been defined as those who are:

1. Receiving the maximum Young Students bursary,

2. The maximum Young Students Outside Scotland bursary,

3. The maximum Students Outside Scotland bursary,

4. Aged 25 or over and are receiving maximum maintenance loan, or

5. Aged less than 25, are exempt from parental or spousal contribution to their support and are receiving maximum maintenance loan.

Nursing and midwifery bursary scheme students are not included in the numbers receiving support from SAAS. Figures on student numbers for academic year 2007-08 are not yet available. Similarly, earnings data beyond 2006-07 are not yet available. Also, income thresholds for 2009-10 have yet to be determined.

Question reference: S3W-13915

Asked by: Claire Baker, MSP for Mid Scotland and Fife, Scottish Labour
Date lodged: Thursday, 05 June 2008
Current Status: Answered by Fiona Hyslop on 16 June 2008

To ask the Scottish Executive whether it considers that outlining £40 million of efficiency savings from converting loans to grants precludes the forthcoming consultation regarding the use of the additional £30 million announced for student support in 2010-11.

The Scottish Government has made clear its intention to move from student loans to a system of means-tested grants. To support this, we have allocated £30 million in 2010-11 to begin this transition. £40 million is the projected efficiency saving that would be made a result of this policy change.

By consulting on these issues later this year, we will open up a number of other possible scenarios. Should another option emerge as a preferred approach then this will be factored into our efficiency projections accordingly.

Question reference: S3W-13909

Asked by: Claire Baker, MSP for Mid Scotland and Fife, Scottish Labour
Date lodged: Thursday, 05 June 2008
Current Status: Answered by Fiona Hyslop on 16 June 2008

To ask the Scottish Executive how many students will receive any financial support from government in each of the next three years if earnings rise at the average rate for 2007-08, broken down by household income.

The latest year for which data are available for students receiving some form of support is for 2006-07. Similarly, 2006-07 is the latest year for which data are available for average earnings. The data show that median weekly earnings rose by 3.1% in the year to April 2007.

Irrespective of how earnings may rise in the next three years, the number of Scottish students receiving support would be unaffected as under current funding rules all eligible students are entitled to at least a non-means tested loan. The table below provides data on the number of Scottish students receiving SAAS support in 2006-07 by parental/spousal residual income after allowable deductions. The table also shows how these data would look if average earnings rose by 3.1% (figure based on growth in average median weekly earnings in the year to April 2007) in each of the subsequent three years. In 2006-07, 114,610 Scottish students received some form of support.

Income Band	2006-07	2007-08	2008-09	2009-10
Income not Declared/Required	34,300	34,300	34,300	34,300
< £10,000	11,180	10,635	10,140	9,755
£10,000 - £19,999	13,735	13,390	13,170	12,940
£20,000 - £29,999	12,115	11,815	11,255	10,820
£30,000 - £39,999	10,005	10,030	10,270	10,220
£40,000 - £49,999	7,160	7,250	7,365	7,565
£50,000 - £59,999	3,865	4,285	4,640	5,005
£60,000 - £69,999	2,075	2,240	2,450	2,545
£70,000 - £79,999	940	1,115	1,310	1,485
£80,000 - £89,999	485	540	555	710
£90,000 - £99,998	270	305	375	385
£99,999+	655	880	945	1,050
Exempt from Parental Contribution	17,830	17,830	17,830	17,830
Total	114,610	114,610 =SUM(ABOVE)	114,610	114,610

Source: SAAS

Notes:

Constant Student Numbers are assumed.

The total number of students in the system has not changed.

Student numbers have been rounded to the nearest five.

Question reference: S3W-13910

Asked by: Claire Baker, MSP for Mid Scotland and Fife, Scottish Labour
Date lodged: Thursday, 05 June 2008
Current Status: Answered by Fiona Hyslop on 16 June 2008

To ask the Scottish Executive how many full-time students will receive full financial support from government in each of the next three years if earnings rise as it anticipates.

Question reference: S3W-13906

Asked by: Claire Baker, MSP for Mid Scotland and Fife, Scottish Labour
Date lodged: Thursday, 05 June 2008
Current Status: Answered by Fiona Hyslop on 16 June 2008

The table below shows the total number of higher education students receiving any support from the Student Awards Agency for Scotland (SAAS) in academic years 2004-05 to 2006-07.

Academic Year	Number of Students Receiving Any Support
2004-05	120,525
2005-06	121,235
2006-07	121,990

Source: Student Awards Agency for Scotland.

Student numbers have been rounded to the nearest five.

In the table “any support” is defined as tuition fees (or tuition fee loans if they study outside Scotland) and/or awards and/or maintenance loans.

These figures do not include nursing and midwifery bursary scheme students. Academic year 2006-07 is the latest for which figures are available.

Question reference: S3W-13914

Asked by: Claire Baker, MSP for Mid Scotland and Fife, Scottish Labour
Date lodged: Thursday, 05 June 2008
Current Status: Answered by Fiona Hyslop on 16 June 2008

To ask the Scottish Executive what plans it has to review the income thresholds for young student bursaries, student loans and additional student grants.

Question reference: S3W-13950

Asked by: Claire Baker, MSP for Mid Scotland and Fife, Scottish Labour
Date lodged: Thursday, 05 June 2008
Current Status: Answered by Fiona Hyslop on 16 June 2008

To ask the Scottish Executive how much it estimates will be spent providing new-lend student loans and how much will be received from student loan repayments in each of the next three years.

The forecasts for Student Loans included in the Spending Review 2007 are as follows:

	2008-09 (£000)	2009-10 (£000)	2010-11 (£000)
Student Loan Issues	180,300	184,700	188,700
Student Loan Repayments	-56,000	-60,000	-64,000
Net New Lending	124,300	124,700	124,700

Question reference: S3W-13904

Asked by: Claire Baker, MSP for Mid Scotland and Fife, Scottish Labour
Date lodged: Thursday, 05 June 2008
Current Status: Answered by Fiona Hyslop on 16 June 2008

The following table shows the number of students receiving full support from the Student Awards Agency for Scotland (SAAS) in academic years 2004-05 to 2006-07. This number is also shown as a percentage of all students who receive any support from SAAS and as a percentage of all higher education students at Scottish higher education institutions and colleges.

Academic Year	Students Receiving Full Support from SAAS	% of Students Receiving Any Support from SAAS [1]	% All Higher Education Students at Scottish Institutions [2]
2004-05	28,370	24	10
2005-06	35,460	29	12
2006-07	35,310	29	12

Source: Student receiving support SAAS, higher education students Higher Education Statistics Agency (HESA) and Scottish Funding Council (SFC). Student numbers are rounded to the nearest five and percentages to the nearest whole number.

Notes:

[1] “Students receiving any support” includes Scottish students studying at institutions elsewhere in the UK and EU domiciled students. “Any support” refers to tuition fees, tuition fee loans, awards or maintenance loans.

[2] “All Higher Education students at Scottish institutions” include part-time students, international students and all postgraduate students studying in Scotland, not all of whom are eligible for funding from SAAS.

Students receiving full support have been defined as those who are:

1. Receiving the maximum Young Students bursary,

2. The maximum Young Students Outside Scotland bursary,

3. The maximum Students Outside Scotland bursary,

4. Aged 25 or over and are receiving maximum maintenance loan, or

5. Aged less than 25, are exempt from parental or spousal contribution to their support and are receiving maximum maintenance loan.

Nursing and Midwifery bursary scheme students are not included in the numbers receiving support from SAAS. Figures for academic year 2007-08 are not yet available.

Question reference: S3W-13924

Asked by: Claire Baker, MSP for Mid Scotland and Fife, Scottish Labour
Date lodged: Thursday, 05 June 2008
Current Status: Answered by Fiona Hyslop on 12 June 2008

To ask the Scottish Executive how the discretionary funding provided to each higher or further education institution is calculated.

Higher Education (HE) Discretionary Funds

HE Discretionary Funds are provided to higher and further education institutions and consist of:

the Higher Education Childcare Fund

the Undergraduate Discretionary Fund

the Postgraduate Discretionary Fund

the new Part-time Fund.

Allocation of HE Childcare Fund is based on the number of Scottish domiciled undergraduate students and post-graduate teaching degree students (excluding those on courses in professions allied to medicine). Half of the fund is distributed according to the number of mature students at each institution and the other half according to the number of students receiving Lone Parent’s Grant.

Undergraduate Discretionary Fund allocations are also based on two sets of criteria. Half of the fund is allocated based on full-time equivalent (FTE) number of UK undergraduate students at each institution. The other half is allocated based on the number of Scottish domiciled full-time undergraduate students whose household income is at or below the income threshold at which maximum Young Students’ Bursary is awarded.

Postgraduate Discretionary Fund allocations are based on the FTE number of UK domiciled postgraduate students (both full and part-time time).

For session 2008-09 a new Discretionary Fund is being introduced for part-time students only. Allocations for this fund are based on part-time FTEs at each institution. This is similar to the method used for the Undergraduate Discretionary Fund.

Further Education (FE) Discretionary Funds

FE Discretionary Funds are provided to FE institutions and are allocated as follows:

50% by each college’s share of FESUMs;

30% by each college’s share of FE students from the 20% most deprived areas (head count) taken from the Scottish Index of Multiple Deprivation, and

20% according to each college’s share of FE Students (head count).

FE activity is measured in SUMs (student units of measurement) as used by the Scottish Funding Council (SFC). Each FE SUM represents FE study as per SCQF measurements up to and including level 6.

The data used in the allocation of the Discretionary Funds comes from the Student Awards Agency for Scotland, the Higher Education Statistics Agency and the SFC’s Further Education Statistics collection.