Over 20,000 weekend students told to return loans and grants after 'error'

An estimated 22,000 students have just received the crushing news that they were ineligible for maintenance loans and grants, despite their universities incorrectly telling them that they were. The issue is effecting students who studied on weekend courses, with many doing so to try and manage full-time work or childcare responsibilities.

Some of the Universities and Colleges involved include: Oxford Brookes and London Metropolitan. Student Finance England has told the affected students that they must repay the money because their university “made an error when providing your course details to us. Unfortunately, they didn’t tell us you only attended on the weekend.”

The Education Secretary, Bridget Phillipson accused the Universities involved of “either incompetence or abuse of the system” as well as saying they “let their students down.” Whether incompetence or abuse, the errors total to £190m.

A “Scandal” was what the The National Union of Students called the situation, which they say will have be “devastating for the affected students”, who would otherwise have repaid the quantities borrowed under the normal student loans system which is dependant on income thresholds. The scandal comes at a time when the Government is already under serious pressure over the students loans system.