To ask the Secretary of State for Education and Skills whether, subject to access requirements, universities will be able to charge top-up fees for Foundation Degrees. [129730]

Foundation Degrees are, and will be subject to the same funding arrangements as other Higher Education qualifications.

To ask the Secretary of State for Education and Skills whether the Office of Fair Access will be empowered to consider the adequacy of (a) financial and (b) pastoral support available to students at higher education institutions. [129763]

We said in "Widening Participation in Higher Education" that the role of the Office for Fair Access would be to consider and approve universities' access agreements, where an institution intended to charge variable fees in excess of the standard fee (currently £1,125) for any of their courses. Institutions will draw up their own agreements, which must set out the fee levels they wish to charge and the courses to which higher fees will apply; the outreach work they plan to undertake; the bursaries and other financial support they will make available; and the milestones against which they intend to measure progress towards their widening participation ambitions. These are the features which OFFA will consider.