The Lifelong Learning Entitlement (LLE) will give individuals up to the age of 60 access to a loan that will cover the costs for the equivalent of four years of post-18 study. This can be used over the course of their lifetime.
The loan aims to help people:
- respond flexibly as skills in the workplace and employment patterns change
- study, train, retrain and upskill throughout their lives.
The LLE will also support a more flexible approach to study. Students will have the option to draw on funds to study for specific modules as well as full years of study.
This will mean they can space out their studies, transfer credits between providers and have the option to study part-time.
The OfS's role
The OfS will regulate all providers offering LLE-funded provision. This means that any provider wanting to offer courses funded by the LLE will need to register with us.
Providers applying to register with the OfS can currently register in one of two categories. Courses funded through the LLE will, however, ultimately replace Advanced Learner Provision. To regulate providers that offer this provision we expect to develop a third category of registration.
We are considering the best time to introduce a third registration category, following the Department for Education's decision to extend Advanced Learner Loans until 2027.
We will also need to adapt our approach to regulation to account for the changes the LLE will bring, including a shift to modular study. To inform this approach we ran a call for evidence on how we could measure student outcomes resulting from this sort of study.
We will develop our regulatory approach in a way that allows providers to make the most of the opportunities, while protecting the interests of students and the taxpayer.
Our regulation of the LLE will have the same aim as our existing regulation: to ensure that higher education is delivering positive outcomes for students.
We will work closely with higher education providers, stakeholders and students in developing our regulatory approach.
What’s happening and when
The LLE is for all courses, including those that are modular. All universities and colleges using the Student Loans Company (SLC) systems will need to make changes to how they present information about their courses for the 2025-26 academic year.
The LLE will be introduced in 2025 for all courses that were previously funded through higher education student finance.
The government will fund the modules in phases. Funding will be initially available from 2025-26 for:
- higher technical qualifications
- some technical Level 4 and 5 qualifications that are currently funded by advanced learner loans.
Students will be able to take out the loan for modular study on these qualifications and courses.
From 2027, the loan will then become available for modules for other Level 4, 5 and 6 qualifications, subject to government decisions about which universities and courses are eligible. Students will be able to take out the loan for modular study on these qualifications and courses.
We will update on OfS work related to the LLE in due course.
