The High Court has confirmed that students on weekend-only higher education courses should be legally regarded as distance learning, making them ineligible for certain funding and grants.

In Bath Spa University & Others v Secretary of State for Education; Department for Education; and Student Loans Company Limited, Judge Mr Justice Johnson ruled that under the Student Support Regulations 2011, distance learning clearly included weekend-only courses.

Distance learning students in the UK can access a tuition fee loan to cover course costs, but can’t receive a maintenance loan or grants for living costs unless they can’t attend in person due to a disability or are studying overseas while tied to the Armed Forces.

Five universities, including Bath Spa, Southampton Solent and London Metropolitan, had launched a judicial review against the Secretary of State for Education, Department for Education (DfE) and Student Loans Company.

This followed 22,000 weekend course students in England erroneously receiving maintenance loans and childcare grants and being asked for immediate repayment. Many of the courses involved were delivered by smaller private colleges under a franchise agreement with universities that award the degree.

By the time the case was heard in the High Court, about 20,000 students had been effectively transferred to other courses so they could maintain their loan and grant incomes, with the DfE agreeing these can be repaid on the terms they had originally anticipated.

Megan Rogers, Associate, and Bill Cordingley, Senior Associate Barrister at UK and Ireland law firm Browne Jacobson, advised the Student Loans Company, working in collaboration with colleagues at Morton Fraser Roberts; a counsel team of Ewan West KC and Clíodhna Kelleher, of Monckton Chambers; and Government Legal Department lawyers, which advised the Department for Education.

Megan Rogers said: “This was a deceptively complex case argued around a point of statutory interpretation relating to whether weekend-only courses constitute distance learning for the purposes of maintenance loans and grants.

“The judge found that course providers had incorrectly submitted student details onto the Course Management System without distance learning markers.

“By reaffirming the regulations that govern what constitutes distance learning, this judgment should provide clarity in future for weekend-only course providers and students alike.”

Trish D’Souza, Legal Director in the higher education team at Browne Jacobson, said: “Universities should take note of this landmark court decision in relation to governance and oversight of courses they outsource via franchise arrangements.

“At a time when student loan repayments are causing angst among undergraduates and graduates – combined with the structural challenges facing the higher education sector – it’s important that institutions are proactively supporting their student population and making financial arrangements as clear as possible which may also feed into consumer law requirements.

“This will help to ensure that studying at university remains an attractive proposition for young people leaving school.”