Student finance to be radically transformed from 2025

The Lifelong Loan Entitlement (LLE) will empower more people to study in a way that works for them, opening up opportunities for those who might have never considered higher education. This could help them balance training or studies alongside other commitments such as childcare or financial commitments, which will revolutionise social mobility and plug skills gaps.

Under the plans, the government has confirmed that from 2025, people will be able to access loans worth the equivalent of four years of post-18 education (£37,000 in today’s tuition fees) under the LLE and use them flexibly over their working lives to suit their circumstances — transforming the student finance system.

The loan can be used to pay for full or part time study, for a variety of courses — from degrees to higher technical qualifications including modules. Like a flexi-travel card, it allows people to jump on and off their learning as opposed to having a ticket with a single destination.

Students will be able to keep track of their studies and see how much funding they have left in a personal account and access information about the courses and modules they can spend it on. This will be available online and operate much like a bank account.

Maintenance loans will also be available for students studying many more technical and part-time courses including modules of courses for the first time. This will set the system on a par with traditional full-time study and open up new study and training opportunities for people from all backgrounds.

People who have previously studied will also be able to access this student finance based on student loans they’ve already taken out. And under the new system, returning students will be able to study at an equivalent or lower level than they previously studied — something that the current system does not allow. For example, thanks to the new rules, from 2025, someone who previously had taken out a student loan to study a history degree will now be entitled to finance for a higher technical qualification in software development.

The LLE will replace the previous student finance system from the start of academic year 2025/26.

In the consultation response, the government confirmed people up to age 60 will be entitled to the LLE, equivalent to £37,000 in today’s fees, including returning students who will have access to any remaining funding once previous student loans are taken into account.

To encourage as many people as possible to retrain or return to study later in life, the “Equivalent or Lower Qualification (ELQ) exception rule” will also be removed.

To put technical study on a par with academic routes, maintenance support will be expanded to be offered across all eligible technical and part-time courses the LLE will fund and offered for new modules of courses, too.

To make student finance as simple as possible and to increase the number of options available to people, higher technical qualifications will also be funded through the new system. These are technical qualifications at level 4 and 5 (between A level and degree level) that provide essential skills needed for careers from software engineer, to nursing, to data analyst. Under the LLE personal account, HTQs will sit side by side with academic routes, transforming the way these qualifications are viewed.

The LLE will provide funding for new modules of courses, which will be introduced in stages: first for higher technical qualifications and some technical level 4 and 5 qualifications from launch in 2025, before expanding to further level 4, 5, and 6 qualifications from 2027. Modules must be part of a full course so they can be stacked towards full qualifications if people wish, with studying picked up and put down throughout people’s working lives as it suits them.

Students who have completed modules will receive a standardised transcript in order to facilitate the transfer of credits.