Streeting: Those with most to gain could miss out

Chief executive of the Helena Kennedy Foundation Wes Streeting comments on sign of reduced university applications following the increase in tuition fees:

“Too many people, particularly those from less well off backgrounds, feel the bar has been set too high by tuition fees at £9,000. This is the direct result of a system designed in the language of government bureaucracy, rather than the reality facing potential applicants and their families. We need to get the message across loud and clear: there is nothing to pay up front, you only repay once you earn over £21,000 for a maximum of thirty years. The price tag on a degree bears little relation to what graduates will actually pay.

“Our greatest fear is that those who have most to gain from a higher education will be the ones missing out. With youth unemployment at over a million, the best place for young people is in further or higher education, equipping them for the economic recovery that will need more skills, not less. Students and their families would be wrong to assume that short term graduate unemployment makes going to university less important.

“Government and university leaders do need to look carefully at the impact of high unemployment on the affordability of the costs of studying in higher education. With a squeeze on part time jobs available to students, more emphasis should be placed on grants and bursaries for the less well off to ensure that the costs of living are affordable to all.”