Commentary on Sections and Schedules Other amendments of Teaching and Higher Education Act 1998
65.Section 43 makes two further amendments to section 22 of the Teaching and Higher Education Act 1998. Subsection (2) amends subsection (2)(i) of section 22. It provides that a loan payable to a student may be paid direct to the institution at which the student is studying. Where the loan is being provided to cover fees, rather than living costs etc., it may be desirable to pay it direct to the institution concerned. This is a key part of the machinery for students to defer payment of their fees by taking out income contingent loans on which no interest will be charged in real terms.
66.Subsection (3) amends section 22 of the Teaching and Higher Education Act 1998 by omitting subsection (7) of that section, thereby removing the requirement for affirmative resolution procedure in the case of regulations raising any grant in respect of fees by more than the rate of inflation. In the 1998 Act, the maximum amount of the grant actually sets the fee itself, so this requirement was intended to prevent the fee being raised by more than inflation without an affirmative resolution. In this Act, the basic and higher amounts are set independently of the grant for fees, and affirmative resolution procedure is required for any above inflation increases of the fees. This means that it is no longer necessary to apply the affirmative resolution procedure to any grant in respect of fees in order to preserve the original intent. This change will mean that the level of grant for fees is treated in the same way as other amounts in the student support regulations.