Student Awards Agency for Scotland

The Student Awards Agency for Scotland (SAAS) is an Executive Agency of the Enterprise, Transport and Lifelong Learning Department and is responsible for paying the tuition fees for Scottish higher education students and awarding student loans.

The agency is part of the Scottish Government and is responsible to Scottish Ministers.

Services provided

SAAS is supposed to provide many vital services to Scottish students. Some of the most important are:

Tuition fees

Scottish and EU students (unlike those from the rest of the UK) have their tuition fees paid for them. SAAS will pay these fees regardless of financial situation. A percentage of this cost has been recouped by the SAAS through a Graduate Endowment, but this was abolished on the 28 February 2008 and covered students who are graduating in the summer of 2008 and those who graduated in 2007. [ [http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/scotland/7268101.stm MSPS vote to scrap endowment fee] , BBC News, 2008-02-28, accessed 28 February, 2008]

The loan

SAAS also offers a loan to help fund Scottish students at university (The loan is provided by the Student Loans Company but students apply through SAAS). Everyone can apply a loan of at least £560 loan, which is a non-income assessed loan. The maximum loan is £4400, however, this is income assessed and the family would need to make less than £19730 a year. An applicant living at home will receive less than if they were to stay in University accommodation.

Repayment of the loan will commence when a student leaves University. They are expected to pay 9% of any income over £15000 via the HMRC. The Student Loans Company is responsible for administering the customer's account and will instruct HMRC on when to start and stop repayment.

Bursary

The Bursary is a non-repayable income assessed “gift” of up to £2455. To be applicable to receive this amount an applicant’s family would need a joint income of less than £17,500. A family making more than £31775 can not apply for a Bursary.

Graduate Endowment

The Graduate Endowment was a fixed amount that graduates had to pay after completing their degree successfully. Students needed to pay the Graduate Endowment to allow continued funding of future students, as this money was ring fenced to allow payment of tuition fees and the Young Student's Bursary, Student Outside Scotland Bursary, the Disabled Students Allowance and all of the other supplementary grants, such as Travel Expenses.

Some students did not need to pay the graduate endowment. They included, but were not limited to, students who have received disabled student allowance and those studying specified courses.

Repayment of the endowment is by the same method as described above for loans, i.e. administered by the Student Loans Company.

Following a sustained campaign by NUS Scotland, CHESS, the Scottish Young Greens, Scottish Socialist Youth and the Federation of Student Nationalists, [Edinburgh University Rector Speaks in Favour of Free Higer Education http://www.journal-online.co.uk/articles/show/2911] the Scottish Government announced plans to scrap the graduate endowment for all current and future students in June 2007. [ [http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/scotland/6744559.stm BBC NEWS | Scotland | Graduate endowment fee abolished ] ] The "Graduate Endowment Abolition (Scotland) Bill" was introduced to the Scottish Parliament by Executive minister Fiona Hyslop on 22 October 2007. On the 23 January 2008, the Bill passed stage two of the legislative procedure [ [http://www.scottish.parliament.uk/s3/bills/02-GraduateEndowAbolition/index.htm The Scottish Parliament: - Bills - Current Bills - 02 Graduate Endowment Abolition (Scotland) Bill ] ] and on 28 February 2008 passed stage three with only the formality of Royal Assent to come, however this decision led to SAAS being asked by Ministers to call in all outstanding Graduate Endowment, including those on post-graduate courses who had previously deferred it. After pressure in the Scottish Parliament Ministers reversed this decision forcing SAAS to cancel any loan agreements made with students repaying the GE while new arrangements were made to allow them to defer payment again.

See also

* Education in Scotland

References

External links

* [http://www.student-support-saas.gov.uk/ SAAS Official site]
* [http://www.scottish.parliament.uk/business/research/pdf_res_papers/rp00-18.pdf Scottish Parliament Research Paper - Graduate Endowments. 2000]
* [http://www.scottish.parliament.uk/business/research/pdf_res_notes/rn01-11.pdf Scottish Parliament Research Paper - Graduate Endowments (2nd Version: redrafted). 2001]
* [http://www.opsi.gov.uk/legislation/scotland/acts2001/20010006.htm The Education (Graduate Endowment and Student Support) (Scotland) Act 2001]