Higher Education Bill And Provision For Gap Year Students

EDM number 1384 in 2003-04, proposed by Phil Willis on 22/06/2004.

That this House welcomes the Lords Amendment to the Higher Education Bill to exempt those students who receive an offer of a place on a designated course before 1st August 2005 from top-up fees; believes that this Amendment will provide transitional arrangements for those who who choose to take a gap year, will allow students the freedom that their predecessors enjoyed under the 1998 Teaching and Higher Education Act to take a gap year without incurring substantial extra debt, will allow students to give voluntary service or to find employment, measures which particularly benefit the wider community, and will avoid over-subscription for places in 2005; and calls on the Government to accept this Amendment when the Bill returns to the Commons.

This motion has been signed by a total of 29 MPs.