Expansion of bursaries key to Top Up Fees :: Wessex Scene Online

Expansion of bursaries key to Top Up Fees

28th November 2005
Richard Pemberton

Rate this story

More by Richard Pemberton

Dec 05 - Solent University turned inside out
Nov 05 - Simple Plan

A number of recent reports on bursaries and student funding for 2006-07 have criticised the government for unfair distribution of funding and creating confusion amongst potential students. The new 2006 funding regime for Top Up Fees of up to Ł3000 per year paid back once a graduate is earning more than Ł15,000 per year, will be introduced in parallel with an expanded and reorganised system of financial assistance for students. But already this system is being criticised. Drummond Bone, President of Universities UK and Vice-Chancellor of Liverpool University, told a committee of MPs that it was "not equitable" that a student from a low income background would receive a far better financial package if he or she applied to Oxford University than the same student would receive if they were to apply to study at a university which admitted more students from similar low income backgrounds.

The new student finance system aims to improve poorer students’ access to ‘traditional’ institutions such as Oxford, which currently have relatively few low income students. The new system will concentrate available money for bursaries in these high-flying institutions, whilst providing less cash for bursaries throughout the rest of the university system, meaning poor students studying outside of the UK’s top universities are likely to find themselves with less access to financial assistance. Poorer students may thus end up dropping out of their courses and of university altogether.

However, in a government-backed report published on 2nd November, Sir Alan Langlands, Vice-Chancelleor of Dundee University, recommended that the bursary system should be expanded further, especially for Medicine and Law students. The report stated that Top Up Fees would be a barrier to entry to these professions for students from poorer backgrounds and that the new financial regime, already criticised, would be especially inadequate for potential students in these areas. Mr Langlands noted that because of the increased costs, students will have to foot paying back their tuition fees after graduation and poorer students may have to make educational decisions based on cost.

Ruth Kelly, the Education Secretary, outlined the government’s attempt to tackle the problem: investing Ł6 million in a joint university-business fund which aims to improve the image of professions such as Law and to reduce the notion that entrants to these fields must be wealthy. However, another government minister, Bill Rammel, admitted at the start of October whilst launching another advertising campaign (this time to convince students that the new financial system should not put them off university) that 40% of parents and students were confused about the new financial system.

Financial issues are also worrying many UK universities, with a number of institutions admitting that their budgeting for the coming three years may be in jeopardy. Many had expected a 20% rise in numbers of international students, bringing with them a 44% increase in fees revenue. Figures actually show that foreign student numbers have increased far more slowly.

The combined result of these issues highlights the risk that students will end up paying more fees for a lower quality of tuition, whilst lower income students may be put off entering higher education entirely due to the unfair distribution of extra funding for them. Calls have been made for a national bursary system similar to that introduced in Wales to improve fairness, but it would seem that the latest series of higher education reforms, combined with wider government policy, may leave universities as well as students worse off in years to come.