The government indicated that it expected to implement an alternative (Shari’ah compliant) student finance scheme by 2016, following its consultation published in September 2014.
The government has since revised its expectations for delivering any such scheme to 2018 at the earliest, details of this confirmation can be found in the recent white paper, entitled ‘Higher education: success as a knowledge economy’ on p60. For further information and for the latest developments on this issue, please see here.
In the interim for those students who wish to pursue higher education without resorting to student finance, please consider the following practical options toolkit here.