NotaPushyMum.Com

I was talking about this to a non-performing person & they nodded & said oh yes a scholarship & I said oh it's not a scholarship....& then I thought about it & it is really

Isn't it?

I would think it is, as it is awarded for talent even though it is means tested. Well done to your DD for getting one. Which college is it for?

Millennium, although she is waiting list for Bird & yet to hear from Performers

I guess I just never considered it that way

Well done Katymac for DD's DaDA!

As it is technically a scholarship does having one then exclude someone from taking out a student loan later in life? Really confused by this ... spoke to student finance about it and they were pretty clueless - stating as Level 6 course is on par with a degree then your cannot get funding for another course of the same level (even if you have never taken out a student loan). Emailed through the DaDA website about 4 weeks ago and have not received a response at all.

All very confusing

Also got a bit of a shock when I realised the funding is only 1417.00 GBP for a student who lives at home. Over 52 weeks that equals 27.25 a week. That wouldn't even cover travel costs across London and I am assuming that Child Benefit and Tax Credits would stop. As these awards are primarily to help lower income families it seems a shame that the lowest earners are likely to struggle if their dc's take this option at 16.

Perhaps I have misread the situation but my dd if she went to 6th form would continue to get around 4000 GBP in tax credits/child benefit, whereas pursuing dance at level 6 will mean she needs to support herself on 27 pound a week

I always describe it as a scholarship to non performing friends as it is simply easier than trying to explain finances for these courses.

Noggin - we were told by a financial director at a college that a DADA is financial help from the government to allow students to do the vocational courses and so a student has already had their 'government funding' and cannot later get a student loan. Although student finance is a loan, the government actually caps the fees from universities and it is taxpayers and government money that in effect cover the difference between the amount the student pays and the actual cost of the course so although university students get loans they are getting their studies part funded by the government also. This government/taxpayer contribution is also the reason why students at private colleges and universities are treated differently to normal universities - allocation of public and private funding.

Student finance clearly states also that student loans are only available for your first higher education qualification. That means if you have completed a level 6 diploma, regardless of how it was funded you are not then eligible for a student loan. I think though that it might sometimes depend on the luck of the draw for who deals with the application as I do personally know people who have had funding to do degrees after completing level 6 courses.

The child benefit/tax credits area is bad and really unfair. Personally I think these 16 year olds fall in a crack in the system which needs addressing but I doubt anything will be done. Here A levels seem to be the key - if your child is doing 2 A levels alongside level 6 course you can still get child benefit etc as they need to be in further education for a certain number of hours a week to be eligible - so only for first 2 years of course.

Yes, I would say a DaDA is a scholarship.

Noggin, your assessment of the DaDA finances is correct. I've fumed about it for years, involved my MP, wrote to the DfE and DWP etc. Eventually I just had to accept that these are private colleges and the govt is under no obligation to grant any type of funding for students to attend (actually I think they sort of are, as it is part of supporting the arts but lets not get political ). My main bugbear is that the Diploma students can no longer claim Housing Benefit, whereas 16-19 yr olds doing A Levels and living away from home can

Regarding Student Loans, my understanding is that having the DaDA scholarship doesn't exclude someone from receiving student finance later (there are no questions in the Student Finance application that could relate to DaDAs - happy to be corrected though) BUT having a qualification at Level 6 does! Student finance is not available for a qualification of the same level as already achieved - even if it was completely self-funded without student finance. If someone leaves the Diploma course before achieving the qualification then my understanding is that they can then get student finance for a degree - because it is based on qualification achieved rather than course studied. Once they graduate the Diploma at Level 6 they can no longer get student finance (whether they had a DaDA or not). If the Diploma is a Level 5 qualification (I think some of them are) then student finance would be available to top up to a Level 6 Degree, so only for the final year not for yr1 (Level 4) and yr2 (Level 5).

Student Finance is available for PGCE though on top of normal Degree funding.

But, I understand 4 yrs of student finance are available & if you have had 3 you can use the student loan to do a 1 year top up to a degree

I think

Yes, 4 years are available, but still only for a qualification which is higher than those already achieved.

For example, if someone does a Level 5 qualification (Foundation Degree, HND etc) which has taken 2 years and they then want to top-up to a Level 6 Degree their new course provider may require them to enter at 2nd year rather than 3rd year (some do) so they would need 4 years total of funding. Also, if someone changes course at the end of 1st year they can start a new 3 year degree and still get funding for the whole course. Once a Level 6 (Diploma/Degree) has been achieved then they don't have access to another year of funding, even if they only took 3 years to get to Level 6.

I'd be interested to know whether the new Laine top-up Degree is eligible for Student Finance, given that Diploma graduates already have a Level 6 qualification... Does anyone know how this works?

Is an honours degree level 7?

I don't know I have a degree & a level 7

My understanding is that the specific conversion courses that are linked to the Trinity diploma do qualify for student funding. The Trinity page lists the places the course can be done - they are designed to be distance learning. There is only one provider for dance but a few for MT. Perhaps the Laines course will be added to this list in due course. That is what I was told anyway but I guess I will find out soon enough as DD would like to do the course so we will be applying this summer/autumn. You cannot apply until you have actually completed your diploma.

Having computer problems so cannot post a link - need to run a virus check I think but if you google National Qualifications framework you will be able to get a chart that shows how things work. Its based on credits so a level 6 diploma and an honours degree are both level 6 because they both fall within the range of credits to count as level 6. The conversion course is 120 credits so I assume that is the difference between a diploma and an honours degree but both still fall in the level 6 category on the framework. Level 7 is a masters degree

Wow - so do I have a masters degree.....impressive for the work that it was

The level of a qualification indicates the 'difficulty', while the number of credits indicates the 'size' (volume of work, time needed to study). I think every 10 hours of required study equates to 1 credit.

For example, RAD Ballet at Intermediate level is a Level 3 qualification, which is the same difficulty as an A Level, but it isn't 'worth' an A Level because the size is less than an A Level. Intermediate Ballet is worth 28 credits, A Level Dance is worth 36 credits, both are level 3

So a level 7 qualification is at the same depth/difficulty as a Masters Degree but it may/may not be a Masters Degree; it could be a Post Grad Certificate or a Diploma. Either way, it is a very high level of study and competency!

Think it might have been a certificate actually - thanks

noggin wrote:Well done Katymac for DD's DaDA!

As it is technically a scholarship does having one then exclude someone from taking out a student loan later in life? Really confused by this ... spoke to student finance about it and they were pretty clueless - stating as Level 6 course is on par with a degree then your cannot get funding for another course of the same level (even if you have never taken out a student loan). Emailed through the DaDA website about 4 weeks ago and have not received a response at all.

All very confusing

Also got a bit of a shock when I realised the funding is only 1417.00 GBP for a student who lives at home. Over 52 weeks that equals 27.25 a week. That wouldn't even cover travel costs across London and I am assuming that Child Benefit and Tax Credits would stop. As these awards are primarily to help lower income families it seems a shame that the lowest earners are likely to struggle if their dc's take this option at 16.

Perhaps I have misread the situation but my dd if she went to 6th form would continue to get around 4000 GBP in tax credits/child benefit, whereas pursuing dance at level 6 will mean she needs to support herself on 27 pound a week

I think you'll see that the £1417 is maintenance rates (whatever they are) but you don't contribute anything towards the course fees if you are in that income bracket - so doesn't that mean that you attend the course for free??