Maintenance grants to open to students studying online
Maintenance grants were not previously available to distance learners while the maximum tuition grant would increase from £7,400 to £9,535.For distance learners, grants would be adjusted depending on the intensity of their courses. While the grants will only be available for degree courses regulated in the British Islands.The change followed similar increases to the household income thresholds from the government.
'Level the playing field'
"These changes will ensure young people studying for their degrees off-campus are entitled to the same maintenance and tuition grants as their campus-based peers," said Ward."This will level the playing field and further open higher education as a viable path for more young people in Jersey to pursue. He added: This further contributes towards our strategic priority to increase the provision of lifelong learning and skills development."
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Times
an hour ago
- Times
Rise of the stay-at-home student: ‘Mum made all my meals'
Almost a third of 18-year-old students in the UK applying to university now stay at home while they do their degree, according to official figures. The Universities and Colleges Admissions Service (Ucas) found that 30 per cent of students who applied to start their degree in the current academic year (2024-25) said they would be living at home, rather than in student accommodation. In 2007, just 14 per cent of teenagers said they planned to live at home during their studies, with the figure rising to 21 per cent by 2015. The figures highlight the rapid change among students, with many unable to afford rent — which can be as much as £1,000 a month — and parents unable to help out financially. A typical student leaves university with debts of £53,000, which is likely to rise when tuition fees increase from £9,250 a year to £9,535 next month. The trend for 'stay-at-home' students rose sharply after the financial crash in 2008 and has jumped again since the Covid pandemic, when children became used to spending more time at home with their family during the lockdowns. Jo Saxton, chief executive of Ucas, said that the high cost of living is contributing to more teenagers staying at home — a trend which is particularly common in London, where rents are high, and Scotland, where tuition fees are free for Scottish students. Saxton said: 'If students choose to stay at home during their studies because it's the best course or institution for them, or because of caring or family responsibilities, of course that's the right thing, but more needs to be done to ensure the cost of living doesn't become a limit on young people's ambition. 'This picture varies hugely across the country, and I've seen that myself from my time as a school leader in both inner London and coastal Kent.' Glasgow Caledonian University, for example, has the highest rate of home-dwelling students in the UK, accounting for 45 per cent of its intake, according to Ucas. By comparison, just one per cent live at home while studying at Oxford and Cambridge. Oxbridge students benefit from the ease of living in colleges which offer three meals a day, room cleaning and famously, at Emmanuel College, Cambridge, a free laundry service. 'Mum made my meals — it was fantastic' Gabrielle Williamson, 26, lived at home in the town of Blantyre while studying a five-year degree at Glasgow University, which was extended to six years due to Covid-related disruption. 'It was the cost but also about the home comforts. I am a home bird and my mum still made all of my meals, washed my clothes. It was fantastic,' said Williamson, who graduated in 2023 and now works as a dentist. 'I did consider moving to Dundee for university but my mum and dad were quite upset about that. A lot of my friends had their own student digs and I often stayed there on weekends, so I didn't feel like I had missed out on anything.' Ben Jordan, director of strategy at Ucas, said: 'If you drive along any motorway in September, you will see car after car full of duvets, pots and pans, and clothes as students head off to university for the first time. I remember my own drive to university, crossing the Severn Bridge [to Cardiff University] with the bedding on the front seat of my Fiesta muffling Oasis's Definitely Maybe. 'However, this stereotypical view of a literal journey into higher education isn't the case for everyone and far more students now live at home during their studies than you may think.' In 1984-85, only about 8 per cent of young first degree entrants were living at home, according to a report released in 2020 by the now-defunct Higher Education Funding Council for England. The proportion of stay-at-home students began rising in the 1990s, which coincided with the introduction of tuition fees in 1998. The most common reasons students cited for staying at home while at university include saving money (64 per cent) and to be near family (46 per cent), according to a new survey of 1,000 UK students commissioned by Leeds Beckett University. More than half (53 per cent) said staying at home encouraged them to attend more lectures and seminars, perhaps under the watchful eye of parents. 'My parents were initially quite upset' Joel Gilvin, 23, lived at home with his parents in Mile End, east London, while he studied for a bachelor's degree in finance and accounting. He graduated this summer from Birkbeck University. He said: 'My parents were initially quite upset [about me staying at home]. My dad wanted me to go and experience life away from home like he had done when he moved from Liverpool to Warwick University. 'I didn't want to get a maintenance loan because I would be in more debt in the future, or get stuck in a contract paying high rent, and live in discomfort or have issues with housemates. 'I might have built stronger friendships and had more fun times partying, but it spurred me on to make friends in my spare time through my music — I play the guitar, piano, cello and perform at open-mic nights. It seemed to me that what most people were going away to university for was the social aspect and that wasn't enough of a driver for me.' 'You want to party — but then Covid hit' Karly Nuttall, 23, lived at home in Altrincham between 2020 and 2023 while studying a bachelor's at The School of Journalism, in Manchester, a collaboration between Plymouth Marjon University and News Associates. She said: 'I had no intention of staying in Manchester but then Covid hit and I realised we were going to be locked down for months anyway. 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Daily Mail
4 hours ago
- Daily Mail
JEFF PRESTRIDGE: Neil Woodford must pay for his failures
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A collapse that was hurried along by the fund's suspension in June 2019 when a big institutional investor – Kent County Council – wasn't able to get its money out. The withdrawal couldn't be made because the fund's portfolio was chock-a-block with illiquid stocks that were difficult to sell in a hurry. A collapse which triggered painful losses for hundreds of thousands of investors despite a subsequent redress scheme. Last week, after six long years, the City's regulator, the Financial Conduct Authority, finally spelt out the punishment it would be meting out to Neil Woodford and his company, Woodford Investment Management: respective fines of £5.9 million and £40 million – and a ban preventing Mr Woodford from running retail investment funds in the future. Hurrah, you would think. Justice at long last. But not yet. Mr Woodford passionately believes he is innocent of any wrongdoing and has appealed against the regulator's decision. It will be heard in the Tax and Chancery Chamber of the Upper Tribunal, which deals with appeals against enforcement decisions made by the FCA and other financial regulators, such as the Prudential Regulation Authority and The Pensions Regulator. If the judge sides with Woodford, the fines and ban could be quashed. Fund expert Alan Miller believes there are enough flaws in the basis of the regulator's decision to make this a possibility. Equally, the judge could rubber stamp the FCA's decision. But irrespective of the outcome, we won't find out for a while. Judgments made in the Upper Tribunal are not handed out quickly. For example, an appeal made by two former Metro Bank executives against fines that the FCA wanted to impose on them for breaches of City listing rules was made in late 2022. It was only in June this year that the Upper Tribunal decided to uphold the FCA's decision – a wait of more than two and a half years. There is nothing to indicate that Woodford's appeal will be judged any quicker. So investors, sore over how Woodford has so far escaped financial punishment, might need to wait until the end of 2027 or early 2028 to discover whether he will finally pay a price for leaving them out of pocket. I know this will irk many former Woodford investors because they have repeatedly told me they have waited too long for him to get his comeuppance. They feel let down on many levels. First, by Woodford's risky management of a fund labelled as a plain vanilla UK equity income fund – skewing the portfolio towards smaller illiquid stocks. Most investors bought the fund on the understanding they were getting exposure to a basket of dividend-friendly UK blue chip shares, the strategy that proved so successful for Woodford investors when he previously ran money for Invesco Perpetual. Secondly, by an inadequate £235 million redress scheme arranged by the FCA which still left most investors nursing big losses. Thirdly, by the fact that while the FCA has been looking into Woodford, he reinvented himself as an investment strategist, inviting people to pay for details of portfolios designed to deliver income, growth or a mix of the two. It's a business which currently sits outside the financial regulatory framework. And of course, finally, by the regulator's protracted probe into Woodford's management of the fund in the run up to its suspension. Many Woodford victims will not like to hear this, but even if the FCA's decision is upheld it is likely the bulk of the fines will never be paid. Woodford Investment Management, a limited company, might have generated big profits in the past – and regularly paid Woodford and his colleague Craig Newman multi-million-pound dividends – but it now has barely two pennies to rub together. Unaudited financial statements for the year to the end of March 2024 indicate that it has net liabilities of £230,028. In other words, its debts exceed its assets – and it does not have the financial wherewithal to pay a £4 million fine, let alone a £40 million one. The £5.9 million personal fine shouldn't be a problem – and it's interesting that Woodford has just put his Salcombe bolthole on the market for £10 million. Yet there is a possibility Woodford might not end up having to pay a penny. Miller, the founding partner of wealth manager SCM Direct and previously with both Jupiter and New Star, has been a long-term critic of the way Woodford ran the Equity Income fund. But he believes Woodford's lawyers may well be able to pick holes in how the regulator has arrived at its decision. He says the illiquidity of Woodford Equity Income's portfolio was not just an issue 'between 31 July 2018 and 3 June 2019' – the time period used by the FCA to base the fines on. It went back even further. For example, at the end of December 2014, according to the fund's own accounts, 30 per cent of the portfolio were in illiquid assets, compared to 5 per cent for the Invesco Perpetual High Income fund that Woodford previously managed. Miller says: 'The fund was illiquid from day one, which begs the question: why didn't anyone – the regulator or the fund's overseer Link – do anything about it?' He also says that there are a number of small cap UK funds open today which have highly illiquid portfolios. These issues, Miller says, could help Woodford in his quest to get the FCA's decision overturned. A travesty, but one of the regulator's making. Last Wednesday, in the wake of the announcement from the FCA on the intended fines, I asked to speak to Neil Woodford to get his side of the story, but I was met with a wall of silence. No surprise there. Six years ago the same happened when I drove to his company's head office in Oxford at the crack of dawn to confront him in the wake of the fund's suspension. Although I was standing outside his offices when he arrived at 7am in a swish black Audi, he sneaked in before I could get anywhere near him – the company's facilities manager at the time had just ordered me and my photographer to leave because we were on private property. He might think silence is golden. I think he should pay a price for the way he let down his investors. But I'm not banking on it.
The Independent
5 hours ago
- The Independent
Thousands march against plan to build massive bridge linking Sicily to Italy's mainland
Thousands of people marched in the Sicilian city of Messina on Saturday to protest a government plan to build a bridge that would connect the Italian mainland with Sicily in a massive 13.5-billion-euro ($15.5 billion) infrastructure project. Protesters staunchly oppose the Strait of Messina Bridge project over its scale, earthquake threats, environmental impact and the specter of mafia interference. The idea to build a bridge to connect Sicily to the rest of Italy has been debated off and on for decades but always delayed due to these concerns. The project, however, took a major step forward when a government committee overseeing strategic public investments approved the plan this week. Transport Minister Matteo Salvini, the project's main political backer, called it 'the biggest infrastructure project in the West.' Salvini cited studies estimating the project would create up to 120,000 jobs annually and help stimulate economic growth in economically lagging southern Italy, as billions more are invested in surrounding road and infrastructure improvements. Opponents are not convinced by these arguments. They are also angry that about 500 families would have to be expropriated in order for the bridge to be built. 'The Strait of Messina can't be touched,' protesters shouted as they marched in Messina. Many carried banners that said 'No Ponte' (No Bridge). Organizers estimated crowd size at 10,000 people. The proposed bridge would span nearly 3.7 kilometers (2.2 miles) with a suspended section of 3.3 kilometers (more than 2 miles). It would surpass Turkey's Canakkale Bridge by 1,277 meters (4,189 feet) to become the longest suspension bridge in the world. Preliminary work could begin as early as late September or early October, pending approval from Italy's Court of Audit. Full construction is scheduled to begin in 2026, with completion targeted between 2032 and 2033. Plans for a bridge have been approved and canceled multiple times since the Italian government first solicited proposals for one in 1969. Premier Giorgia Meloni's administration revived the project in 2023. With three car lanes in each direction flanked by a double-track railway, the bridge would have the capacity to carry 6,000 cars an hour and 200 trains a day — reducing the time to cross the strait by ferry from up to 100 minutes to 10 minutes by car. Trains would save 2/12 hours in transit time, Salvini said. The project could also support Italy's commitment to raise defense spending to 5% of GDP targeted by NATO, as the government has indicated it would classify the bridge as defense-related. Italy argues that the bridge would form a strategic corridor for rapid troop movements and equipment deployment, qualifying it as 'security-enhancing infrastructure.' Environmental groups, however, have lodged complaints with the EU, citing concerns that the project would impact migratory birds. Italy's president has also insisted that the project remain subject to anti-mafia legislation that applies to all large-scale infrastructure projects. Salvini pledged that keeping organized crime out of the project was a top priority.
