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For years and years now, the (Wmin) government has provided a top up of funds to universities for support for disadvantaged students called "student premium funding"
This year - during the pandemic - Gavin Williamson cut the funding from £277 to £256m. There's £150m for FT students, £66m for PT students and £40m for Disabled students.
The idea is that it goes on costs universities face in supporting students to succeed. These costs were significant pre-pandemic and during pandemic all the issues are exacerbated.
Fairly early on in the pandemic, questions started to be asked about whether the government would put any additional money in to help students. It was announced that some student premium funding might be able to be "reallocated"...
...“there may still be significant uncommitted funding for planned activities such as the delivery of face-to-face outreach activity in schools which have been closed as a result of the coronavirus outbreak” said OfS
That seems to have given DfE the green light to spend the money over and over and over again on almost anything you could think of to do with students, hardship, costs etc
On Oct 13 it was deployed as an answer on mental health services https://www.theyworkforyou.com/wrans/?id=2020-09-29.HL8612.h
On Oct 12 it was deployed as an answer on access to digital and online learning https://www.theyworkforyou.com/debates/?id=2020-10-12b.6.1&s=%C2%A3256#g6.3
On the same day it was used as an answer on the affordability and availability of books https://www.theyworkforyou.com/wrans/?id=2020-10-06.99635.h
On 6th October it was used in an answer on university costs for cleaning https://www.theyworkforyou.com/wrans/?id=2020-09-28.96038.h&s=%C2%A3256#g96038.r0
On 1st October it was used in an answer on debt and first year students https://www.theyworkforyou.com/debates/?id=2020-10-01a.541.0&s=%C2%A3256#g553.4
On 1st October it weas used in an answer on hardship funding for students who have to isolate https://www.theyworkforyou.com/lords/?id=2020-10-01b.293.3&s=%C2%A3256#g293.4
On 29 Sep it was used in answer to a question on students unable to provide a guarantor to secure their accommodation https://www.theyworkforyou.com/wrans/?id=2020-09-21.92872.h&s=%C2%A3256#g92872.r0
On 18 Sep it was used in an answer on mental health of students affected by summer 2020’s exam results https://www.theyworkforyou.com/wrans/?id=2020-09-10.88407.h&s=%C2%A3256#g88407.r0
On 9th September it was the answer to a question on applications from disadvantaged students https://www.theyworkforyou.com/wrans/?id=2020-09-01.83917.h&s=%C2%A3256#g83917.r0
On 7th September it was used as the answer on postgraduate students whose courses have been extended but are disallowed from applying for further supporting loans https://www.theyworkforyou.com/wrans/?id=2020-09-01.83916.h&s=%C2%A3256#g83916.r0
On the same day it was used as support for students facing hardship given lack of PT jobs https://www.theyworkforyou.com/debates/?id=2020-09-07c.345.10&s=%C2%A3256#g346.6
And again on the same day as general support for PG students https://www.theyworkforyou.com/wrans/?id=2020-09-01.83916.h&s=%C2%A323+students#g83916.r0
In June it was used for international students facing hardship https://www.theyworkforyou.com/wrans/?id=2020-06-22.62652.h&s=%C2%A323+students#g62652.r0
And for support to students who are no longer occupying their accommodation but who are still being required to pay rent https://www.theyworkforyou.com/wrans/?id=2020-06-15.59373.h&s=%C2%A323+students#g59373.r0
And for reimbursement of students that have paid deposits on housing https://www.theyworkforyou.com/wrans/?id=2020-06-09.57372.h&s=%C2%A323+students#g57372.r0
It's been deployed in Parliament at least 40 times in total on any number of things connected to students (of all types) and universities. Yet every penny diverted in this way represents a cut to normal support for disadvantaged students.
To see how much money was allocated in SPF this year see here. You want columns X, Z and AB - as there's been no direction allowing providers to mix money between FT, PT and Disabled. https://www.officeforstudents.org.uk/media/493f101f-28bd-41eb-92ea-7fd59ae16c18/ofs2020_24a_july-2020-update.xlsx
That does mean by the way that just £130m is available to support FT students that are not Disabled.
Normally about 40% of the funding is spent on access, so let's say that's about £78m for current student success, progression. Now have a think about how many students that's supposed to be supporting, the purposes listed above and the extent to which it's already been budgeted.
