Early figures show a dramatic drop in applications to university from UK students. We look at the details behind the statistics, and consider who has been most severely deterred from applying to higher education as a result of the new tuition fees system.
Worrying new statistics show that increasing financial support in the form of bursaries does not necessarily help attract students from disadvantaged backgrounds to apply to elite universities. We ask what this means for the new tuition fees scheme and how we can address the problem of equal access to university for all.
A new report from a highly respected think tank has branded government plans to penalise early repayment of student loans ‘crazy’. The think tank, CentreForum, claims hard working middle-income graduates will be hit by the scheme.
The long-awaited Higher Education Policy Institute response to the government’s white paper on higher education has arrived, and it isn’t pretty. We summarise its condemnation of the new tuition fees policy and the damning predictions for the damage to be caused to social mobility and fair access to education.
When the government regulatory body OFFA announced this week that all English universities had been allowed to charge the fees they had set for themselves, equal access campaigners were angry but unsurprised. The ‘toothless’ regulators put in place by the government to allow tuition fees of £9000 only “under exceptional circumstances” have allowed fees to climb to an average of £8393.
As the tuition fees furore continues, two teenagers have won an unprecedented battle to take the fight to the High Court. They will argue that the government’s new tuition fees policy contravenes human rights law by disadvantaging students from poorer backgrounds and creating an elitist system where university is for the rich.
A shocking new survey is ruffling government feathers with conclusive statistics proving that over 50% of current final year university students would not have applied if tuition fees were £9000. We look at the details and implications of the survey.
As the deadline arrives for universities to submit their proposed levels of tuition fees for 2012, we provide a condensed summary of all the vital facts and developments on tuition fees.
Yet more problems have beset the troubled tuition fees scheme this week, as it emerged that a major flaw in the government plan will disadvantage tens of thousands of students choosing to defer entry to take a gap year.
As England’s top universities flock to announce top tuition fees of £9000, worrying statistics show that the top Oxbridge Universities have failed to meet targets to improve their intake of state school pupils. We ask why millions of pounds are being poured into access and outreach schemes that are quite obviously not working in the way they should.
