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<p>The government publishes an Equality Impact Assessment (EIA) is each year to analyse
the impact of changes to higher education (HE) student support in England on students
with protected characteristics and those from low-income families. The EIA for the
2024/25 academic year was published on GOV.UK on 26 January 2024 and is available
at: <a href="https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/higher-education-student-finance-2024-to-2025-equality-analysis"
target="_blank">https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/higher-education-student-finance-2024-to-2025-equality-analysis</a>.</p><p>The
department has continued to increase maximum loans and grants for living and other
costs for undergraduate and postgraduate students each year with a 2.8% increase for
the current academic year, 2023/24, and a further 2.5% increase announced for 2024/25.</p><p>In
addition, the department has frozen maximum tuition fees for the 2023/24 and 2024/25
academic years. By 2024/25, maximum fees will have been frozen for seven successive
years. The department believes that the current fee freeze achieves the best balance
between ensuring that the system remains financially sustainable, offering good value
for the taxpayer, and reducing debt levels for students in real terms.</p><p>The government
understands the pressures people have been facing with the cost of living and has
taken action to help. The department has already made £276 million of student premium
and mental health funding available for the 2023/24 academic year to support successful
outcomes for students including disadvantaged students.</p><p>The department has also
made a further £10 million of one-off support available to support student mental
health and hardship funding for 2023/24. This funding will complement the help universities
are providing through their own bursary, scholarship and hardship support schemes.
For this financial year, 2024/25, the department has increased the Student Premium
(full-time, part-time, and disabled premium) by £5 million to reflect high demand
for hardship support. Further details of this allocation for the academic year 2024/25
will be announced by the Office for Students (OfS) in the summer.</p><p>Overall, support
to households to help with the high cost of living is worth £108 billion over 2022/23
to 2024/25, an average of £3,800 per UK household. The government believes this will
have eased the pressure on family budgets and so will in turn enable many families
to provide additional support to their children in HE to help them meet increased
living costs.</p><p>English domiciled 18 year olds from the most disadvantaged areas
are now 74% more likely to enter HE than they were in 2010, and the department is
working to close the disadvantage gap with our access and participation reforms.</p><p>The
department has tasked the OfS to include support for disadvantaged students before
entry to HE in new access and participation plans. Providers should be working meaningfully
with schools to ensure that pupils from disadvantaged backgrounds are encouraged and
supported to achieve the highest possible grades and follow the path that is best
for them, whether that be an apprenticeship or higher technical qualification, or
a course at another university.</p>
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