The Prisoners’ Education Trust (PET) wants ministers to undo a 25 per cent cut in education provision in prisons. The charity also wants ministers to abolish a rule that stops long-term prisoners from starting degree courses.
Its report, ‘Beyond the classroom: Strengthening distance learning provision in prisons’, sets out the benefits of distance learning in prison. PET says such courses reduce reoffending and improve people’s chances of finding work after release. It wants the Government to work with prison leaders to strengthen them.
Impact of the cuts
According to PET, the Government imposed a two-phase real-terms funding cut in October 2025 and April 2026. The charity notes that the Justice Committee voiced its alarm before the cuts took full effect. The committee warned that they risked undermining efforts to reduce reoffending.
PET says the cuts have now removed 25 per cent of all education capacity in public sector prisons in England. The University and College Union says at least 300 prison educators have lost their jobs as a result.
PET pays for prisoners to study subjects that prison classrooms do not offer. They take these distance learning courses mostly in their cells. Even so, the charity says the cuts have hit its work. Distance Learning Co-ordinators, the prison staff who liaise with PET and the Open University, now face far greater pressure.
“One prison stopped supporting distance learning entirely due to overwhelming pressure on education, while others have introduced waiting lists or strict application caps to manage the demand on overstretched staff,” the report says.
The six-year rule
Prisoners who want to study for a degree usually rely on student loans. However, people with more than six years of their sentence left to serve cannot get them. PET wants this ‘six-year rule’ scrapped. It calls the restriction on tuition fee loans arbitrary. The Department for Education and the Ministry of Justice must work together to remove it, the charity says.
The charity also wants the Government to restore the Dynamic Purchasing System budget to its previous level. That budget lets governors commission education tailored to the needs of the men or women in their prison.
PET combined its own experience with insights from prison staff and learners. It then used its findings to highlight good practice. The report makes five recommendations for the Government and 10 for prison leaders.
These include making sure all prison staff understand the benefits of distance learning and then promote it to prisoners. PET also wants groups where students can meet to discuss problems and progress. It says every student should be able to sit exams, and it wants results celebrated as a sign of success.
PET’s policy manager is Mark O’Mahony. He said: “Everyone in prison should have the same access to education as people in the community. Distance learning is essential for achieving that, for many people in prison it is the only route to educational progression beyond essential learning.”
