Welsh law students set to study in England at BPP or the University of Law this September are currently unable to obtain student funding.
Whilst English students studying at the law schools have been able to apply for loans on advantageous terms from Student Finance England, Welsh students are still waiting to hear whether they will be able to get similar funding from Student Finance Wales. One Welsh student told RollOnFriday of her frustration as she had anticipated applying for funding of over £10,000 to ensure she was "not going to be short" for the year.
With only a few weeks to go until law school starts, Welsh students are left pondering whether they will have to seek alternative funding with eye-watering charges. However nobody is accepting responsibility for the funding gap and instead the blame game has started.
The Student Loans Company in Wales say that they can't hand out money to students until the Welsh government authorises funding for the law school courses. A SLC spokesman told RollOnFriday "the Welsh Government is responsible for administering and assessing specific designation applications from providers. Only when they provide confirmation to SLC that a course has been designated can SFW [Student Finance Wales] make student finance available to students."
The University of Law also suggested that the Welsh Government is sitting on its hands, as a spokeswoman said "we have submitted our applications and are awaiting final confirmation on the outcome from the Welsh government". She added "we appreciate it is very frustrating for the students affected but we are hopeful that this will be resolved soon".
And a BPP spokeswoman told RollOnFriday that the Welsh Government only "released to us their policy for the designation for post-graduate programmes on 28th July 2017" even though they understand that the application process "can take around three months for a decision". She added "we regret that this is impacting negatively on students wishing to join us in September and want to offer assurances that we are doing our utmost to achieve a resolution to this obstacle.”
A Welsh Government spokesman said "the Welsh Government has received and is processing applications for designation as quickly as possible and can confirm that a number of applications have already been approved".
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Whilst English students studying at the law schools have been able to apply for loans on advantageous terms from Student Finance England, Welsh students are still waiting to hear whether they will be able to get similar funding from Student Finance Wales. One Welsh student told RollOnFriday of her frustration as she had anticipated applying for funding of over £10,000 to ensure she was "not going to be short" for the year.
With only a few weeks to go until law school starts, Welsh students are left pondering whether they will have to seek alternative funding with eye-watering charges. However nobody is accepting responsibility for the funding gap and instead the blame game has started.
The Student Loans Company in Wales say that they can't hand out money to students until the Welsh government authorises funding for the law school courses. A SLC spokesman told RollOnFriday "the Welsh Government is responsible for administering and assessing specific designation applications from providers. Only when they provide confirmation to SLC that a course has been designated can SFW [Student Finance Wales] make student finance available to students."
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The University of Law also suggested that the Welsh Government is sitting on its hands, as a spokeswoman said "we have submitted our applications and are awaiting final confirmation on the outcome from the Welsh government". She added "we appreciate it is very frustrating for the students affected but we are hopeful that this will be resolved soon".
And a BPP spokeswoman told RollOnFriday that the Welsh Government only "released to us their policy for the designation for post-graduate programmes on 28th July 2017" even though they understand that the application process "can take around three months for a decision". She added "we regret that this is impacting negatively on students wishing to join us in September and want to offer assurances that we are doing our utmost to achieve a resolution to this obstacle.”
A Welsh Government spokesman said "the Welsh Government has received and is processing applications for designation as quickly as possible and can confirm that a number of applications have already been approved".
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