Removal of maintenance grants 'damaging for children's futures'

Updated

Plans to axe grants for poor students could put teenagers off going to university, a poll claims.

The new survey indicates that some parents believe that a government move to replace maintenance grants - which are designed to help those from low-income homes with their living costs - with loans will have a detrimental impact on whether youngsters decide to study for a degree.

It also suggest that many mothers and fathers think that the plan, announced by Chancellor George Osborne last year, will undermine the Government's bid to boost the numbers of disadvantaged young people going into higher education.%VIRTUAL-ArticleSidebar-education-stories%

The poll of around 1,200 parents, commissioned by the National Union of Students (NUS), found that overall, 34% of those surveyed said that the proposals would discourage children from applying to university. This rose to two in five (40%) among the parents polled who had a combined annual income of £25,000 or under.

Around 15% of all those questioned said that scrapping the means-tested maintenance grants would encourage teenagers to apply, while 38% said it would neither encourage nor discourage them and the rest did not know.

More than half (55%) of all mothers and fathers polled said that replacing the grants with loans would undermine the Government's objective of increasing university access for people from poorer backgrounds, rising to 60% among the low-income parents questioned.

Just over one in four (28%) of all the parents surveyed said that the move would not affect access to university for poorer students, while 17% said the proposal supports the Government's widening access objective.

NUS president Megan Dunn said: "The Government has continually denied the scrapping of maintenance grants would negatively affect students, particularly those from poorer backgrounds. This is just not true.

"Our research shows it's not just students but their whole families who have serious concerns about these changes. Parents, particularly those with lower incomes, can see how damaging scrapping grants will be for their children's futures."

- The Populus poll questioned 1,240 British adults with children aged 18 and under, including 568 with a combined annual income of £25,000 or less, between January 6-10.

A Business Department spokesman said: "Everyone with the potential to benefit from higher education should have the opportunity to do so, and our policy means that a lack of finance should not be a barrier to participation. Our changes will increase the overall living costs support we provide to students, and this will not have to be paid back until students are earning over £21,000."

UK University Applications Fall as Fees Rise
UK University Applications Fall as Fees Rise

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