The Committee for Education, Sport & Culture met on the day that A-level results came out and agreed that it would look again at the model, which currently costs the taxpayer about £10m. a year.
The current student finance grants are means-tested, based on household income and assets, and use standardised allowances, but do not take into account a family’s individual financial circumstance such as having high mortgage repayments.
The maximum support offered by the States this coming academic year is £9,790 for tuition fees and £9,518 for living costs. Students in London can claim an additional allowance of another £2,000.
ESC president Paul Montague said that the committee had responded to public concern.
‘We want to be clear that we have listened, and in response, we have moved this issue up our list of priorities,’ he said.
‘At our most recent meeting, we agreed to commission a comprehensive review of the funding model, and – importantly – to carry out a faster, parallel piece of work to identify and address any inconsistencies in our assessments for funding eligibility and to improve application processes straight away, so that these are not simply carried over into another year.
‘We are approaching this on two tracks deliberately – the full review will ensure the model is fair and sustainable in the longer term, while the more immediate revisions mean we are not waiting for that wider work to conclude before fixing things that need attention now.
‘We do understand that this will be of limited comfort to those preparing to take up places this September. Our commitment is that anyone applying from next year, including those on deferred places or beyond their first year of study, will do so under a revised set of arrangements.
‘In the meantime, any student or family with concerns about their individual circumstances can contact the student finance team, who will be glad to help.’
A late funding ‘window’ opened last week and is open for another week for students to make late applications under the current mechanism.
One local student, Zakk, who did not want to give his surname, contacted the Guernsey Press with his concerns about what he described as ‘a nightmarish process’.
The 19-year-old achieved the two distinctions and one distinction star he needed to go to the University of Exeter to study politics, but feared he would not be able to take it up as he had not been awarded a grant from Education.
‘They haven’t taken into account the fact that my mum is a single parent who has had to borrow money so that we could remain in the house we live in. Just because my mum has, on paper, a good job, they look at that and assume she’s wealthy.
‘I had all these options and then they all started folding in on themselves.’
Zakk said that he was facing having to work for several years on-island before he could go to university. He said he would favour a system like student loans offered in the UK.
‘For all the flaws the UK system has, at least you can just go and get your education and worry about paying for it afterwards. Here we have to worry before, during, and after, and the chances are if you’re worrying before going to university, you won’t be able to go at all,’ he said.
‘If I were born 100 miles north of here on the south coast, I wouldn’t have to worry about any of this. It just feels really annoying.’
But he welcomed the update from ESC.
‘I am thankful that this issue is being addressed. I hope that, through their short-term actions, they are able to remedy as many of the problems as they possibly can that the current system has, and I hope that these longer-term actions prove effective at ensuring that every student has a fair chance to reach their potential.’