Citation, commencement and interpretation

1.  These Regulations may be cited as the Students Awards (Amendment) Regulations (Northern Ireland) 1999 and shall come into operation on 31st August 1999.

2.  The Students Awards Regulations (Northern Ireland) 1998(3) shall be amended as follows.

3.  In Schedule 3—

(a)in paragraph 3(1) to (3) before the word “award” on each occasion it occurs there shall be inserted the word “old”; and

(b)after sub-paragraph (4) the following paragraph shall be inserted—

“(4A) A transitional award shall terminate at the end of the first year of the course.”

4.  In paragraph 1(1)(d) of Schedule 7—

(a)after the word “disability” the words “or incapacity” shall be inserted; and

(b)all the words following the words “or by any other person” shall be deleted.

5.  In Schedule 9 to the Regulations—

(a)in paragraph 1(2) for the words “for which he is in gainful employment” there shall be substituted the words “during which the student is employed”; and

(b)in paragraph 2 after the words “the prescribed proportion of” the word “the” shall be inserted.

Explanatory Note

(This note is not part of the Regulations.)

These Regulations amend the Students Awards Regulations (Northern Ireland) 1998 (“the principal Regulations”). The principal Regulations provide for the making of awards for courses beginning on or after 1st September 1998, and for payments pursuant to awards whenever made. Subject to saving and transitional provisions the principal Regulations will be replaced by the Students Awards Regulations (Northern Ireland) 1999 on 1st September 1999. These amendments are therefore relevant to academic years beginning on or after 1st September 1998 and before 1st September 1999.

Regulation 12(2) of the principal Regulations provided that payments pursuant to transitional awards, which were made in respect of most courses beginning after 1st September 1998, should be made in respect of the first year of the course. The intention was that financial support for subsequent years should be provided pursuant to regulations made under Articles 3 and 8(4) of the Student Support (Northern Ireland) Order 1998. Now that such regulations have been made (The Education (Student Support) Regulations (Northern Ireland) 1999) it is not necessary to allow for the possibility that payments might be made after the first year of the course, and accordingly an amendment provides for such awards to be terminated after the first year (regulation 3).

An amendment ensures that incapacity benefit is disregarded in determining the income of a student, whether or not the benefit is taxable (regulation 4).

An amendment provides that modern language students employed for a period in a country which speaks a language of their course should be treated as sandwich students, whether or not the employment is paid (regulation 5).