At long last, this autumn sees the beginning of a new era in UK education: distance learning students will have the same entitlement to tuition fee loans as regular students who physically attend university courses. This means they can cover the cost of their course with tuition fee loans, rather than having to find the cash before and during their courses ... and when it comes to repayments, the same rules will apply to them as to regular university students, in that they'll only have to start repaying their loan once they're earning over £21,000 a year.
Now Distance Learners can feel the joy of having letters from the Student Loans Co. land on their doorstep for the next decade or two!
It's excellent news for distance learners, since putting money aside to cover tuition costs isn't always easy to do, and many people who would otherwise have jumped at the chance to improve their career prospects through distance learning have had to shelve their plans purely for financial reasons.
Being able to fund a distance learning course without having to scrimp and save, people have more of a chance to gain work skills which not only benefit those studying in this way, but also, in the long run, which will benefit the UK economy as a whole. And the mere fact that distance learning students are entitled to tuition fee loans is something to consider for those who've always considered distance learning a second-class way of getting a degree, therefore making that degree not as valuable as one earned by sitting down in a lecture hall, listening and taking notes. The mere fact that distance learners will be entitled to tuition fee loans gives online and distance learning the same financial value as a degree earned through a university education ... and now the same educational credibility, as well.
