Planned cuts to the Disabled Students’ Allowance have been postponed until 2016-17.

The postponement was announced by Greg Clark, the Universities and Science minister, this morning.

The changes, originally unveiled by then universities minister David Willetts in April, were due to come in for the 2015-16 academic year.

At the time of the announcement, the NUS branded Mr Willetts as “arrogant and out of touch”.

As part of the plans, universities will be made to take responsibility for their own DSA, which it was feared would lead to a cut in investment.

Mr Clark said that the reason for the postponement was because “concern was conveyed that some universities may not be able to meet their obligations in full by the beginning of the 2015-16”.

According to Mr Clark, during the 2011-12 academic year DSA provided £144 million to 61,000 students.

The news means that the government will continue to provide DSA for the 2015-16 academic year, however in 2016-17 the changes will go ahead as planned.

Speaking to Leeds Student, Alan Langlands, Vice-Chancellor of the University of Leeds said:

“This appears to be a government cut and the notion in government is that universities should pay for this. I think we will pay for it, we in this university are very proud of the services and support we provide for disabled students and we have no intention of reducing that.”

Jake Hookem