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I have been asked by Antoinette Titchener-Hooker at the CVCP to send out the following message, which is a correction drafting error in the CVCP note (I/99/10) sent out to universities on 27 January about hardship loans. It also reflected a misunderstanding by universities about the spending of the hardship loan budgets. The DfEE has given the correct position. A paper copy of the new note is being sent out today. Roger Clark Academic Registrar University of Reading 8 February 1999 Correction to I/99/10 - Hardship Loan Review: CVCP response Background 1. Paragraph 13 of CVCP Note I/99/10 dated 27 January (Hardship Loans Review - CVCP Response) said that: " However, institutions have been advised that they run the risk of losing ACCESS FUNDS for 1999/2000 if they have not used two-thirds of their Hardship Loans by the end of March 1999. This needs to be reviewed". Correction 2. First, this contained a drafting error and was intended to read: "… run the risk of losing HARDSHIP LOANS for 1999/2000 …". 3. Second, the DfEE has informed CVCP that it is not the case that an HEI's hardship loan budget will have to be surrendered if a certain proportion of that budget is not spent by the end of March 1999. The actual position is as follows. 4. HEIs have been given budget allocations for the 1998/99 academic year, and this total is unaffected by the way in which the budget is spent across the two relevant financial years. When DfEE notified HEIs of their hardship loan budget allocation in August last year, it recommended that HEIs should spend about 60% of their allocations in the first two terms and 40% in the final term. The purpose of this was to ensure that sufficient funds were available for students who applied for hardship loans later in the academic year, and no reduction of 1998/99 hardship loan budgets would be incurred by HEIs whose expenditure pattern differed from this. 5. I should be pleased if you could alert all relevant staff to this correction and am sorry for the mistake in the original CVCP note. CVCP/DFEE discussions 6. The CVCP response to the DfEE Review highlighted that the actual pattern of applications for hardship loans was not as expected by the DfEE, with take up to date being low. This is one of the issues CVCP will discuss with the DfEE at a meeting on 12 February to discuss the Review findings. We shall also argue strongly for the hardship loans to be put into the Access Funds as a fairer and more efficient way of targeting support on vulnerable students in financial need. %%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%