Award the SFE Grant to distance learners who are putting in full time hours.

Rejected 21 signatures

What the petition asks

All distance learning courses are classified as part time despite most people completing 120 credits a year which is in fact full time and on par with students attending university daily. The disabled, parents, mature students etc. - are losing out on the SFE grant due to this misclassification.

We would like the term 'part time' removed for 'distance learning' university courses which discriminated against those unable to attend university through disability, family, commitments etc. Distance learners work very hard to balance home life and educate themselves to better our workforce and as such should be financially treated equally with those able to attend universities daily. The loss of the grant for these distance learners is significant because of misclassification.

Why it was rejected

It was not clear what the petition asked the UK Government or Parliament to do.

The Government no longer provides grants for higher education, whether these are full-time, part-time or distance learning.

The Government does provide loans for tuition fees, which cover full-time and part-time students, even if these involve distance learning. The Government also provides maintenance loans, but you can only apply for a Maintenance Loan as a Distance Learning student if you cannot attend your course in person because of a disability.

We could accept a petition calling on the Government to make Student Finance maintenance loans available to all Distance Learning students, if that's what you want to happen.

Timeline

5 Oct 2020	Petition opened for signatures
29 Oct 2020	Rejected by the Petitions Committee

Key facts

Signatures 21

Status Rejected

Rejected 29 Oct 2020

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