The island’s student awards regulations are flexible enough to deal with changing circumstances resulting from the Covid-19 pandemic without being revised.

Most Manx students attending courses off island have their fees paid for them.

This includes a £2,500 loan which begins to accrue interest of 2% plus the Bank of England base rate from the first July after their course ends and is repayable from the point they reach the earning threshold of £25,000.

Clare Barber (Douglas East) asked Minister Dr Alex Allinson if the Department of Education, Sport and Culture had any plans to revise the regulations.

In his written answer, Dr Allinson said the DESC had no plans to revise the awards for the 2020/21 academic year after they were ’extensively revised’ last year.

Under those revisions, the income limits for eligibility was raised and maintenance grants were changed to allow more students to be eligible.

Dr Allinson said: ’The regulations are flexible enough to accommodate any changes to contributors’ financial status as they can elect to be assessed on current year incomes rather than the prior year which would normally be used.

’This will allow any reduction in income earned by the contributors due to the coronavirus to be taken into account.

’As this pandemic moves through its various phases it is difficult to predict how universities will be functioning at the start of the next academic or how many students will be actually starting their degrees this year, but it is felt that the student award regulations will be able to meet the needs of returning and new university students.’