By Vivienne Russell | 8 November 2012
English universities’ financial support for poorer students varies substantially and is more generous at the more prestigious institutions, the Institute for Fiscal Studies has found.
Students starting university this autumn under the new fee regime can apply for help, such as fee waivers and bursaries, from a £50m government-funded National Scholarship Programme. Additional matched contributions are provided by universities, which are free to design their own support schemes.In an examination of the help offered by 90 universities in England, the IFS found that the new schemes were ‘considerably more complex’ than their predecessors. At most institutions, prospective students were unable to find how much support they might be entitled to before they enrolled.
Eligibility criteria also varied considerably, with some universities basing it on parental income, some on neighbourhood disadvantage and others on academic ability.
Higher-ranked universities tended to operate the most generous schemes. A student with a family income of up to £25,000 could expect to receive average support of more than £2,900 a year at a Russell Group university, but a student at a former polytechnic would receive no more than £900 a year.
Higher-achieving students would be offered more support across all institutions, particularly the lower-ranked ones. The IFS suggested this could be a response to a change in the admissions system that allows universities to recruit as many students as they like with A-level grades AAB or better.
Commenting on the findings, Haroon Chowdry, senior research economist at the IFS, said: ‘The introduction of the National Scholarship Programme has led to substantial variation across universities in the generosity and type of financial support available to the poorest students.
‘Of particular concern is the fact that it is often very difficult for a student to work out how much total support they might receive before they apply. This complexity and lack of transparency raises questions about whether the programme will encourage participation among students from poor families.’
In a separate report, the IFS found that higher education participation rates between those from the richest and poorest families had narrowed in the past decade. The introduction of a higher £3,000 tuition fee cap in 2006/07 had been offset by a new support scheme that was more generous to poorer students and hit richer students relatively hard.
There was a small dip in HE participation in 2006/07 following the introduction of higher fees, mainly affecting better-off students, but this was temporary. After 2006/07, the upward trend in HE participation continued to rise, and most quickly for those from poorer backgrounds.
Claire Crawford, programme director at the IFS, commented: ‘The experience in 2006/07 provides some hope that the drop in university applications observed this year – following the most recent increase in tuition fees – may not herald the start of a longer-term fall in participation rates.’
Earlier this week, the Higher Education Funding Council for England revealed that universities had recruited fewer students than they expected.
