Friday 19-12-2025 - 11:08

Written by Liz Gillett

Liz is the LUSU Education Officer 25/26. 

 

In early November, I wrote a letter to Cat Smith MP about the reintroduction of the maintenance grant.  

 

Jacqui Smith, Minister for Skills

The news of the maintenance grant was announced at the Labour conference in October for ‘low income students on high priority courses’, funded by an international levy. And I had questions. You can read what I wrote to Cat Smith MP here.

 

The questions posed were the following:  

• Who will be considered lower income? 
• And will this include current students who are considered low income?
• What courses will be considered high priority?
• How do the grants plan to be delivered?
• Would it be something that fits in with the current instalment system of maintainance loans?  

 

Since then, MP Cat Smith has passed on my query to the Minister for Skills Jacqui Smith (of Strictly Come Dancing fame) who has provided me with a response. The response was not able to answer many of our questions. However, upon announcement of the budget at the end of November, we have gained a lot more clarity.   

 

“I would like to assure Ms Gillett that the government is committed to creating a secure future for our world-leading higher education (HE) sector so it can deliver for students, taxpayers, workers, and the economy. The real-terms value of loan support for students has reduced by more than 20% over the last five years and it is essential that we improve this. That is why, on 29 September, we announced that targeted, means-tested maintenance grants will be reintroduced before the end of this Parliament, funded by a levy on international student fees. Maintenance grants will provide students from the lowest income households with crucial additional financial support to undertake courses at levels 4 to 6 under the Lifelong Learning Entitlement, including technical qualifications and degrees. We will set out further details on maintenance grants and the international student levy at Autumn Budget.”  

  

What do we know about grants now? 

 

Key Points:  

• Grants will be introduced in 28/29 academic year, including for pre-existing students  
• The income thresholds for eligibility will be in line with the current household income thresholds for maintenance loans  
• Amounts will vary from £1,000-£375  
• Eligible courses will be informed by Skills England and will be in line with the government’s missions and industrial strategy   
• The grants will be funded by a levy on international students  

  

Who will be considered lower income and how do the grants plan to be delivered? 

The amount will be means tested for lower income students. Students from households earning less than £25,000 will get the maximum, up to students whose household income is £30,000. For those students who meet the lower threshold will get £1,000 in their first and second years and £750 in subsequent years of study. The minimum amount of grant will be £500 in first two years to £375 in subsequent years.   

This tapering is to provide students access and initial progression through their initial years of study and drops in line with maintenance grants which are lower in the final year of study.   

The concerns here is how this limits the number of students who are considered low income.  The £25,000 threshold is set from the current household residual income required to access the maximum maintenance grant. The current threshold for this amount was set in 2007, with inflation today this would be around £45,000. The threshold being set in line with this number means that many students who would significantly benefit from a maintenance grant would not be able to access it.  

  

What courses will be considered high priority?  

We still don’t know what the ‘high priority’ eligible courses are but we do know that they will be informed by Skills England and align with Lifelong Learning Entitlement funding (a new way of funding the post-18 education landscape). Higher education provides critical skills no matter the degree, and is a development opportunity for the individual that levels up the skills for the country.  

A concern surrounding providing lower income students with support conditionally is that they may be pressured into studying certain subjects. This is a pressure that would not be faced by students who do not meet the thresholds.   

  

Will this include current students who are considered low income?  
Grants will be reintroduced from 2028-29 and will be made available to pre-existing and new students. This will be paid on top of maintenance loans to full time UK students.  

  

Other points...

We can assume that these grants will be integrated with the wider student finance system in some formation.   

The grants will be funded by a new international student levy. The levy was initially proposed at 6% extra tax for universities on their international students. The budget announcement had some changes. The levy will be a flat fee of £925 per student, with the first 220 students exempt. The change from a percentage to a flat fee could potentially impact the amount of funding available, disincentivising making the maintenance loan more accessible.   

An additional point to make is that although this is targeted at universities to pay the fee, institutions set their own international fee prices and would likely pass this burden onto international students.