The lifelong loan entitlement is an opportunity. Let's grab it

With increasing demand for skilled professionals, an aging population and generative AI creating a technological revolution, individuals will need access to education and training throughout their lives.

The lifelong loan entitlement (LLE) offers a promising answer to some of these challenges. With the dust now settled on the UK Government’s consultation response, we can start asking what the higher education sector can do to support its success.

The entitlement is equivalent to four years of post-18 higher education funding (£37,000 currently).

The LLE will do two things:

1. Replace the current higher education student funding system. Yes, even your typical full-time, three-year undergraduates will draw their funds from the LLE.
2. Expand funding to modular and flexible provision, allowing learners to study qualifications in chunks and take breaks. This is what’s novel about the LLE.

This funding will be available for Higher Technical Qualifications and some Advance Learner Loans courses from 2025. Then in 2027, we will see a wider rollout of level 4–6 modular provision. The entitlement will be available to all new and returning learners.

The higher education sector should embrace the overall ambition of the LLE. It’s a policy which is more radical than I think many people realise – but the direction it sets is the right one.

A flexible approach to tertiary education funding has the potential to benefit learners, employers, and universities alike:

• It will encourage universities to think differently about education delivery and has the potential to enhance collaboration with further education.
• Employers will have the opportunity to benefit from a stronger talent pool and bridge skills gaps through smaller chunks of learning, responsive to their needs.
• For learners, the LLE could promote personal and professional growth, allowing them to change career paths or upskill in existing ones.

The consultation response saw welcome announcements on the removal of equivalent or lower qualifications (ELQ) requirements and the expansion of part-time maintenance support. This will help new and returning people access the courses they need to thrive.

So there are many reasons to be optimistic about where this policy could take us. The challenge will be working out how to make it a success. This will require universities to think about how they might respond, but the low take-up of recent short course pilots also points to a wider challenge in encouraging potential students to think about the opportunities – and to make sure that supply and demand are aligned.

The LLE will need to be a collaborative endeavor. Yes, its success hinges on getting the policy right, but it also hinges on universities using their resources to engage employers and learners.

There are five key areas we want to work with the Department for Education (DfE) and the Office for Students (OfS) on in the coming years.

I believe though, that if we think the vision is right, we need to work together as a sector to figure out how to address the barriers to successfully putting the LLE into practice.

Any change on this scale will need the collective insight, experience and knowledge of those in our universities and colleges to make it a success. Universities are already hugely experienced in training and upskilling the UK workforce, and providing types of flexible higher education.

With demographics shifting and technology evolving, it’s an exciting opportunity to make sure the UK has the higher education system it needs for the future.

We look forward to working with universities and the government to make the vision a reality.