The Lifelong Learning Entitlement

What is the Lifelong Learning Entitlement?

From the 2026/27 academic year, the Lifelong Learning Entitlement (LLE, previously the Lifelong Loan Entitlement) will create a single, publicly funded post-18 student finance system in England, replacing undergraduate student finance and Advanced Learner Loans at levels 4, 5 and 6. Applications for the LLE were supposed to launch in February 2025, with learners starting in September 2025. However, delivery challenges have led to multiple delays and applications will now open for LLE funding from September 2026 for courses and modules that begin from January 2027 onwards.

The LLE will provide all new learners with a tuition fee loan entitlement to the equivalent of four years of post-18 education up to the age of 60. This would be £38,140 based on the current maximum fee limit of £9,535 for the 2025/26 academic year. Additional entitlement will be available for priority subjects and longer courses, such as medicine. A “residual entitlement” will also be available to returning eligible learners who have already received publicly funded student finance. For all courses and modules the LLE funds, eligible in-person learners will also be able to access maintenance loans towards their living costs, as well as targeted grants depending on their personal circumstances.

The LLE is intended to be used flexibly, for full-time or part-time study of full qualifications at levels 4 to 6, including degrees, higher technical qualifications, and level 4 to 6 qualifications currently funded by Advanced Learner Loans where there is “clear learner demand and employer endorsement”. The LLE will also be available for modules (which comprise at least 30 credits, whether individual or bundled together) in subject groups that address priority skills needs and align with the government’s industrial strategy. Current restrictions on receiving funding for most courses at an equivalent or lower level to a qualification a student already holds will be removed (known as ELQ restrictions) to increase flexibility for people using the LLE to retrain.

Through provisions in the Lifelong Learning (Higher Education Fee Limits) Act, traditional degree courses, short courses, and modules will be priced consistently according to their respective amount of learning, as measured by credits. Learners will have an online personal account they can access throughout their life that will display their LLE ‘balance’ as well as information, guidance, and details of eligible courses the LLE will fund.

Background to the Lifelong Learning Entitlement

On 29 September 2020, the then-Prime Minister, Boris Johnson, gave a speech at Exeter College in which he announced a new Lifetime Skills Guarantee that would give people the opportunity to train and retrain throughout their lives.

More detail on this guarantee was included in chapter three of the previous Conservative government’s white paper Skills for jobs: Lifelong learning for opportunity and growth, which was published in January 2021. The white paper set out reforms to post-16 technical education and training that the government hoped would support people to develop the skills needed to get good jobs and improve national productivity.

On 24 February 2022, the then-government concluded a review of post-18 education and funding. Alongside policies and proposals for consultation relating to student finance and student loan repayment terms, the government launched a consultation on what was then referred to as the Lifelong Loan Entitlement. The government published its response to the consultation in March 2023. It also published an impact assessment and equalities analysis.

Reaction

The planned removal of ELQ restrictions and the expansion of maintenance support for living costs to level 4 and 5 qualifications was welcomed by many across the education and employment sectors as an important way to ensure learners could access funding to retrain, develop their careers, and fill skills gaps in the economy.

The Chief Executive of the Association of Colleges (AoC), David Hughes, welcomed the LLE as a potential “game changer”. However, he argued modular learning needed to become more mainstream, and the LLE alone would not change the behaviours and priorities of most learners focussed on achieving a traditional undergraduate degree.

The decision to cap eligibility for the LLE at age 60 has been described as an “ageist strategy”, while there have been calls for more funding to ensure learners can stay in their studies and not leave because of financial reasons and so providers can adapt courses for modular learning. Other reaction has called for level 7 (master’s level) modules to be included within the LLE’s scope and for it to be aligned with the government’s plans for the new Growth and Skills Levy to ensure the successful implementation of both policies.

Commentary

According to the impact assessment published alongside the government’s consultation response, it is not possible to develop a fully quantified assessment of the LLE because of current uncertainty around the likely response of learners and providers, and because some policy decisions have yet to be made. The previous government said a more detailed assessment would be published when the secondary legislation needed to implement the LLE fully had been laid.

There have been questions asked about how much demand there is for lifelong learning and the principle of funding it through government-backed tuition fee loans. Polling by Public First, a public policy and data consultancy, found older workers and people outside of London would be less likely than other groups to want to take out a student loan to cover tuition fees.

In December 2021, the Office for Students and the Department for Education announced a trial to test demand for short courses and to assess what impact the availability of loan funding would have on participation. While it was intended that just over 100 courses were to be available to more than 2,000 students during the 2022-23 academic year, only 17 courses were ultimately launched because of insufficient demand. There was a total of 125 student enrolments, with just 41 taking out a new student loan to fund their course.