Scotland’s Students Awards Agency to Receive Boost
Written by admin on May 10, 2013
An extra £2 million has been injected into Scotland’s students awards agency (SAAS) to improve delivery of the best ever package of student support in the UK.
The £2 million will fund a programme of improvements, some of which are already underway, to deliver the extra £200 million invested to support students this year.
These include a 200 per cent increase in the number of staff handling calls during peak times; an additional day and a half of contact time to the SAAS helpline each week for students; and putting in place arrangements for student advisors to highlight directly to SAAS any priority cases.
Cabinet Secretary for Education and Lifelong Learning Michael Russell said the Scottish Government is delivering the best package of support available anywhere in the UK to a growing population of students.
“Last year we put £580 million into students’ pockets. Where students applied by the deadline, there were very few problems, however, it was clear we took too long processing late and complex applications.
“I would encourage all students to take care with their application, to apply on time and access their share of the £778 million that is earmarked for student pockets this year,” Mr Russell said.
The move follows an independent review carried out by David Wallace of the Student Loans Company, which was commissioned by the Education Secretary Michael Russell in November 2012 in recognition of the fact that there were issues at SAAS that needed to be addressed.
