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2ND DEC 2008
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A Level students in England will be able to apply for a student loan or student grant at the same time as applying for a place at university.
 Students applying for university in 2009-10 will access an integrated service, where applications for courses and finances will be co-managed.
The new system, announced by the Department for Education and Skills, aims to simplify student finances.
The government says it will lead to faster decisions and prompter payments.
The system will see the Student Loans Company (SLC) and the Universities and Colleges Admissions Service (Ucas) working in tandem.
Review of current system
Derek Ross, the SLC's director of operations, said: "The plans take into account what the customer needs and really puts this at the heart of the system.
"We have been working hard for some time to ensure that the student finance system is as efficient and customer-friendly as possible and the results of the review will enable us to take this to the next level."
The planned changes follow a review of higher education student finance delivery, published in January.
The review said the arrangements must offer students clear information about their entitlement to support.
It called for faster decisions once applications had been made, timely payments when students started a course and accurate repayments when these came to be made.
The report said the SLC should "initiate" payments to students within one working day, not two, and students should be sent a text message when the funds had been processed.
The review also called for greater efficiency, meeting taxpayers' expectations that value for money was being achieved.
And once students are earning above £15,000, employers should start making repayment deductions immediately rather than after 42 days as it currently stands.
The president of the National Union of Students, Gemma Tumelty, said: "Applying to university can be a daunting time for students and their families as they worry about the increasing costs of studying for a degree, and the prospect of taking on vast amounts of debt.
"Navigating the plethora of forms and applications can make for a very confusing and stressful time and we welcome this initiative to simplify the system."
'Deterrent'
But she said this could not disguise the fact that with the introduction of top-up fees, student debt was "set to rocket", and financial fears deterred many capable students from going into higher education.
From this September annual tuition fees in English universities - presently a flat rate of £1,175 - will be varied from nothing up to a maximum of £3,000.
Students will no longer have to pay them "up front" - while they are at university - unless they want to.
Instead, fees will be covered by a loan, repayable by graduates once their annual income passes £15,000.
Repayments will then be a minimum of 9% of all earnings over that figure per year.
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Provided by Eamonn Connaughton (United Kingdom)
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