“contribution” means any contribution (including one which is not paid) in respect of the income of any other person which the Secretary of State or an education authority takes into account in ascertaining the amount of the student’s grant; or any sums, which in determining the amount of a student’s allowance or bursary in Scotland under the Further and Higher Education (Scotland) Act 1992(1), the Secretary of State or the education authority takes into account being sums which the Secretary of State or the education authority consider that the holder of the allowance or bursary, the holder’s parents and the holder’s spouse can reasonably be expected to contribute towards the holder’s expenses;

“course of study” means any course of study whether or not it is a sandwich course and whether or not a grant is made for undertaking or attending it and for the purposes of this definition a person who has started a course of study shall be treated as attending or undertaking it, as the case may be, until the last day of the course or such earlier date as he abandons it or is dismissed from it;

“education authority” means a government department, an education and library board established under Article 3 of the Education and Libraries (Northern Ireland) Order 1986(2), a local education authority as defined in section 114(1) of the Education Act 1944(3) (interpretation), a local education authority as defined in section 123 of the Local Government (Scotland) Act 1973(4), any body which is a research council for the purposes of the Science and Technology Act 1965(5) or any analogous government department, authority, board or body of the Channel Islands, Isle of Man, or any other country outside Great Britain;

“full-time course of study” means a course normally involving not less than 15 hours attendance a week in term time for the organised day-time study of a single subject or related subjects;

“full-time student” means a person undertaking a full-time course of study and includes a student on a sandwich course;

“grant” means any kind of educational grant or award and includes any scholarship, studentship, exhibition, allowance or bursary but does not include a payment derived from funds made available by the Department of Education for the purpose of assisting students in financial difficulties under Article 50 or 51 of the Education and Libraries (Northern Ireland) Order 1986;

“grant income” means—

“last day of the course” means the date on which the last day of the final academic term falls in respect of the course in which the student is enrolled;

“sandwich course” has the meaning assigned to it in regulation 3(1) of the Students Awards (No. 2) Regulations (Northern Ireland) 1996(6);

“student” means a person, other than a person in receipt of a training allowance, who is attending a course of study at an educational establishment; and a person who has started on such a course shall be treated as attending it until the last day of the course or such earlier date as he abandons it or is dismissed from it;

“Year” in relation to a course of study means the period of 12 months beginning on 1st January, 1st April or 1st September according to whether the academic year of the course of study in question begins in the spring, in the summer, or the autumn respectively.