Thousands of university students - including Leeds Trinity - face loan repayment after High Court ruling

A group of universities - including Leeds Trinity University - providing weekend-only courses have lost a High Court challenge over maintenance loan and grant eligibility affecting thousands of students.

Five universities took legal action against the Department for Education (DfE) and the Student Loans Company over classifying weekend-only classes as distance learning courses, with these students not entitled to grants or maintenance loans.

The DfE has estimated that around 22,000 of these students wrongly received approximately £330 million this academic year.

Around 80 per cent of affected students have switched to weekday classes, with others facing having to repay loans they have already been issued, which for one academic year can reach £13,762 in London and £10,544 elsewhere.

At a hearing in July, lawyers for Leeds Trinity University, Bath Spa University, Buckinghamshire New University, London Metropolitan University and Southampton Solent University said the distance learning classification was “irrational” because students spend the same number of hours studying as those in weekday classes.

Weekend-only courses require at least 21 hours of study a week for at least 24 weeks of the year, with at least six hours of attendance a week on a Saturday or Sunday, the High Court in London was told.

The DfE opposed the claim alongside the Student Loans Company.

In a ruling on Monday, Mr Justice Johnson dismissed the legal challenge.

In a 33-page ruling, the judge said that under a 2011 regulation, the attendance requirement is not met by a requirement to attend “on a weekend” and there is a “material difference” between this and weekday attendance.

He said: “On a natural interpretation of the critical words, these were distance-learning and not in-attendance courses.

“Further, the words ‘a weekend’ are more naturally read as referring, generically, to weekends generally rather than a single weekend, as in a sentence such as ‘the employer will pay overtime to an employee who works on a weekend’.”

The judge later said that the DfE was entitled to prioritise different groups of students when considering who should be given public support.

Mr Justice Johnson added: “It was rational to adopt a distinction between attendance during the working week and during a weekend, precisely because the former is more likely to interfere with conventional full-time employment.

“It is obvious that there are exceptions, perhaps much more so now than in 2011.

“That does not mean that the decision to adopt the test in the statutory definition was unreasonable.”

The judge added that none of the dispute is the fault of the affected students who have “borne the brunt of the fallout from the dispute”.

The DfE previously said that maintenance loan overpayments will be recovered through the normal income-based system once earnings reached a certain level rather than requiring immediate repayment, and grant payments to students on weekend-only courses will not need to be repaid.

A DfE spokesperson said: “Today’s judgment is welcome – it confirms weekend-only courses are not eligible for maintenance support and we were right to take action to protect taxpayers’ money.

“Providers are fully responsible for correctly registering their courses for student finance and we will not hesitate to hold them to account where they do not fulfil their responsibilities.

“More widely, we are determined to crack down on university franchising arrangements that do not deliver for students and facilitate abuse of the system, maintaining the integrity of our world-class universities sector.”

A joint statement on behalf of the five universities said: “The High Court has confirmed that the judicial review claim brought by five of the thirty universities understood to have been impacted by the withdrawal of student support funding for full-time courses delivered at weekends has been unsuccessful.

“The legal action initiated on 2 April by the five universities was taken in response to the DfE and SLC decision to seek the immediate repayment of maintenance loans and targeted, means tested grants made to students studying in-person at weekends, and the classification of in person weekend study as “distance learning” for the purposes of student support eligibility.

“The universities welcomed the Secretary of State's decisions taken during the preparations for the court hearing that any maintenance loans paid to impacted students will continue to be repaid through the normal Income Contingent Repayment system and that targeted grants paid to affected students will not be recovered, including in respect of current students, former students and those who have withdrawn from their studies.

“Prior to the judgment, the Department for Education announced a review of the relevant regulations and guidance, and we welcome the opportunity to participate positively and constructively in that process to support the Government’s ambitions in relation to skills development and lifelong learning.

“The universities’ priority throughout has been to ensure fair and consistent support for students including providing hardship funding, wellbeing support, academic guidance and revised timetabling arrangements where possible.”