Oxfordshire County Council has defended its record on dealing with student loan applications after reports that computer faults had delayed some payments this term.

While admitting there were problems last week, education department spokesman John Mitchell said that for the first year ever, all the Students who applied for loans on time were paid on time.

He said: "Those students who put in the right data the first time had their grants paid on time. Those applications that were still being processed when the system failed were applications that had been sent to us late, or had data missing.

"The delays related to people who applied later. Their claims were being processed and the machines not working would have made them even later, yes, but those who supplied accurate information still got paid on time.

"We constantly review our procedures to look for ways of improving services. That process has produced a good result this year, which we hope to maintain in the future."

The department decides whether Oxfordshire students are entitled to take out loans and relays the information to the Students Loans Company, which administers the payments.

It is unclear how many students were affected by the three-day long computer failure last week but the council is confident there will be no more delays.