Bridget Phillipson has ordered the Public Sector Fraud Authority (PSFA) to assist in ongoing investigations into fraudulent maintenance loans handed out to students that have no intention of completing a course.

This followed an in-depth investigation by The Sunday Times, which found that there could be ‘organised recruitment’ of Romanian nationals being enrolled on courses as between 35% and 55% of new students are Romanian, with some claiming online to speak little to no English. They are recruited online and through aggressive telesales techniques.

In 2015-16 there were just 5,000 applicants from Romania, this has increased to 84,000 in 2023-24 and is higher than the number of students from any other country. If 80,000 students claimed the full maintenance grant of £25,000 outside of London, this could total as much as £200m a year in fraudulent claims.