Bath Spa University & Ors v Secretary of State for Education & Anor

Facts

Five post-1992 universities — Bath Spa, Buckinghamshire New, Leeds Trinity, London Metropolitan and Southampton Solent — sought judicial review of the Secretary of State for Education's decision that full-time degree courses requiring extensive home study and in-person attendance every weekend during term, but not on weekdays, are "distance learning" courses within regulation 2(1) of the Education (Student Support) Regulations 2011 rather than in-attendance courses. The consequence was that students on such courses were ineligible for maintenance grants and loans. The universities had introduced weekend-only courses from 2018 onwards, registering them on the Student Loans Company's Courses Management Service without marking them as distance learning, so their students received maintenance support. After a presentation to the Minister for Skills by the Open University and a departmental survey, the Secretary of State wrote to providers in December 2025 stating that weekend-only attendance would not qualify; on 20 March 2026 she instructed the Student Loans Company to apply distance learning status, stop payments and recover overpayments, and on 23 March 2026 the Permanent Secretary communicated the decision to affected providers. Some 22,000 students were affected. The claimants challenged that decision, the alleged frustration of a legitimate expectation, the rationality of the definition, and the Student Loans Company's reinstatement of funding for students who transferred to weekday courses. The claim was issued on 28 May 2026 and expedited by Chamberlain J as a rolled-up hearing.