The proposed changes include:
a new funding policy focussing around new flexible delivery for modern apprenticeships and funding for priority subjects;
- the phasing out of the lower band payments of the Educational Maintenance Allowance (scrapping of the £10 and £20 EMA payments);
- the refocusing of funding support around priority identified by WAG.
NUS Wales attended a consultation event on the 4th of December where we voiced our concerns that:
- The proposal is too vague to identify with any certainty how many students might be losing out if funding support focuses on priority subjects to the detriment of main stream courses;
- The WAG must be clearer about what will be the threshold above which students are no longer eligible for the EMA and how many students risk being affected;
- The WAG must give students guarantees that if these proposals go ahead, students not on ‘priority subjects’ courses will still be entitled to the same level of support as students on priority courses or we risk creating a two-tier system based on principles of inequality.
NUS Wales are concerned that this proposal is generally too vague to clearly identify who would be negatively affected and in what way. We urged the WAG to arrange a series of focus groups to talk directly to students on the receiving end of these changes.
We are now in the process of drafting a written response to this consultation and we need case studies to illustrate our points.
If you are currently in receipt of the £10 and £20 EMA, we would like to hear from you, in particular to find out what you use the money for.
To provide us with some feedback on this or any other aspects of the consultation, please contact us on sophie.buchaillard-davies@nus-wales.org.uk
The consultation deadline is the 11 January 2010 so get in touch very soon.
The full consultation can be found here.