FIFTY thousand students in Wales will qualify for new education grants of up to pound;1,500 a year under a new pound;44 million initiative launched by the Welsh Assembly this week.
The means-tested grants of between pound;750 and pound;1,500 will be available to all further and higher education students after an independent inquiry said that cash for the least well-off was the best incentive for students to stay on.
Jane Davidson, minister for lifelong learning, said she expected the average grant to be pound;925. “This major step forward in widening access shows we are taking hardship and the ill-effects of debt among disadvantaged learners seriously in Wales.”
Around 100,000 FE students in pilot schemes in England get education maintenance allowances of up to pound;40 a week.
