The panel say despite an in-committee debate in the States Assembly last month, various reports being published and huge public interest, little progress has been made on how young Islanders should be financed through university and higher eduction.

They say although more funding has been made available in the Mid Term Financial Plan, they are still concerned that some students may not be able to fulfil their ambitions in their chosen field because of financial constraints.

Panel member, Deputy Jeremy Maçon said: “This is a problem that has remained unresolved for years. Governments have repeatedly allowed the grant system to become so underfunded as to fail to meet the needs of the people it is intended to provide for, the loans system has never really left the ground as the amounts are too small to work. The changes in the UK have compounded the problem further by increasing fees and therefore creating further hardship on families and students.

"There are some fundamental questions that need resolving, such as who should finance university education, the family, the student, the state or perhaps business? The Panel wants to get to the bottom of some of these thoughts and try to establish how the people of Jersey would like to see this moving forwards.

"We recognise that the MTFP has now been agreed however, there will still be students who wish to enter university in years to come and by carrying out this review, we hope to inform future debates on funding to assist ANY students ability to further themselves.”

The Panel plan to report back with their findings by February next year.

You can share your views by emailing the Panel here.