Whether any discretionary funds have been exhausted at universities or colleges in the last two academic years and, if so, which funds and …

Higher Education Discretionary Fund allocations for each year are intended to provide institutions with a source of additional funding which they can then use to assist students in financial difficulty and who are at risk of not completing their course. The funds are intended to be spent within the year in which they are allocated, thus providing the maximum sum available to students in each individual year. Any unspent funds are returned for redistribution in the following academic year and are thus put straight back into the discretionary funds system.
The vast majority of funds should therefore be exhausted in the academic year for which they are allocated.
Academic Year 2006-07
A total of five institutions exhausted both their Higher Education Discretionary and Childcare Funds. These were:
Ayr College
Barony College
Glasgow Metropolitan College
North Glasgow College
Reid Kerr College.
A further five institutions exhausted only their Discretionary Fund allocation:
Banff and Buchan College
John Wheatley College
Newbattle Abbey College
Edinburgh College of Art
St Andrews University
A further three institutions exhausted only their Childcare Fund:
Borders College
Queen Margaret University College
RSAMD.
Academic Year 2007-08
A total of three institutions exhausted both their Higher Education Discretionary and Childcare Funds:
Barony College
Dundee College
Reid Kerr College.
A further three institutions exhausted only their Discretionary Fund allocation:
Edinburgh''s Telford College
John Wheatley College
Newbattle Abbey College.
A further eight institutions exhausted only their Childcare Fund:
Borders College
Glasgow Metropolitan College
Oatridge Agricultural College
Stow College
Glasgow School of Art
Heriot Watt University
RSAMD
Strathclyde University.