Students need grants to make university viable

Sir Peter Lampl, chairman of social mobility charity the Sutton Trust, has called upon the government to rethink reintroducing grants for disadvantaged students who have the ability to go to university.

Costs

A report by the National Education Opportunities Network found that soaring costs are preventing the poorest students from attending university. This could be worsened in the coming months as the government considers plans to scrap the cap on tuition fees completely.

Sir Peter Lampl, who is also the chairman of the Education Endowment Foundation, said:

“It’s worrying that young people are limiting their options due to the abolition of grants, and others seem unaware of the high level of debt — the highest in the English speaking world — that they will face after leaving university.”

Sir Peter Lampl called for a “rethink on reintroducing grants” and a “big expansion in good higher and degree level apprenticeships.”

Under privileged

The survey was conducted online and polled 1,500 students and two focus groups. It found that young people who are eligible for free school meals were the most likely to consider university fees during their decision making process, followed by Black and Minority Ethnic (BME) students.

BME students were more likely to say that they would look to stay at home during their course to help keep costs down, whilst the availability of maintenance grants would be a major factor in their decision to apply for university.

The general secretary of Lecturer’ Union UCU, Sally Hunt, shared Sir Peter Lampl’s concerns about the impact of rising costs on bright but disadvantaged students:

“It is a travesty that the rising cost of tuition fees would be most likely to deter young people from the most disadvantaged backgrounds from going to university.”

She added that young people from disadvantaged backgrounds who opted to attend university: “are more likely to put cost at the forefront of their decision-making — often opting for institutions close to home which offer cheaper study that can be combined with part-time work.”

Degrees of debt

Earlier in the year Sir Peter’s charity the Sutton Trust published a report comparing university funding arrangements, debt at graduation and earnings outcomes for full-time domestic undergraduates in eight Anglophone countries: the UK (England, Wales, Northern Ireland and Scotland), United States, Canada, Australia and New Zealand.

It found that, for the typical student, average debts are the highest for English students.