14 November 2007
University think-tank Million+ calls for a more holistic approach to student finance regimes to safeguard widening participation
An analysis of the student finance regimes operating in the UK has been published by university think-tank Million+. It reveals that UK students now face a finance system of exceptional complexity with combinations of differential fees, fee and maintenance loans and grants and eligibility determined by means-testing, age, mode and intensity of study, year of study, country of residence and the date of entry to (or graduation from) university.
Professor Les Ebdon, Chair of the university think-tank Million+ and Vice-Chancellor of the University of Bedfordshire said, “This report is a reality check for us all. If widening participation remains a goal, there is a strong argument to streamline future arrangements and for a more holistic approach.”
The report undertaken by researchers at London Economics for Million+ provides an independent analysis of the present fee and funding systems in the UK and in other countries. It is about the present and does not attempt to predict what any future system should look like.
ENDS
Notes to editors
The researchers conclude that:
- The UK now has a complex student finance regime
- Any future reform needs to consider a whole system approach, particularly if widening participation remains a goal
- The differing treatment of part-time students is affecting participation and may be contributing to non-completion rates
- The differing fees regimes for full-time students which have emerged in the UK since 2004 have affected student behaviour
- There is a clear resource advantage for those institutions recruiting younger full-time students
- The Exchequer invests approximately £1,290M more per annum in England than was previously the case but contributes less directly to universities and more to students and graduates. Graduates rather than being net beneficiaries are now net contributors to higher education by £230M per year
- With the exception of Ireland, where full-time students pay no fee and get relatively generous access to grants, all other countries studied had some sort of tuition fee or co-funding by participants in higher education
- This varies from the free market approach of the US where the annual average fee ranged from £2,964 to £11,464 (05/06) to the Netherlands with an annual fixed fee of £1,046 (06/07) but where students receive loans, charged at a commercial rate of interest, which are converted into grants and written off if the student successfully completes their course within 10 years. In some countries – Australia, New Zealand, the US – there appears to be little difference in the treatment of full-time and part-time students
Press contact: Pam Tatlow, Chief Executive Million+, 07795 645241