POOREST STUDENTS FACE £20,000 DEBTS

12.00.00am UTC (GMT +0000) Thu 26th Feb 2004

Graduates from the poorest families will graduate with debts of nearly £20,000, the Higher Education Minister has conceded following a challenge from David Rendel MP.

The admission came during today's sitting of the House of Commons Standing Committee which is scrutinising the Higher Education Bill.

Higher Education Minister Alan Johnson agreed with Mr Rendel that students from the poorest backgrounds face debts of £19,650 when they graduate. This is made up of

 £9,000 in fees over three years

 £10,650 in maintenance loans over three years

This assumes, as the Minister does, that the student will use the £2,700 grant and the maintenance loan to pay for their living costs.

Mr Rendel said -

"£20,000 debts would be a significant deterrent to university entry for those from the poorest backgrounds. This is the conclusion of the Government's own research.

"The Minister's admission that poorer students will graduate with these debts makes a nonsense of the Government's claim to be widening access."

ENDS

Note to editors: The author of the Government's own research, Professor Claire Callender of South Bank University, concludes: "one of the most significant findings… is that debt aversion deters entry into HE. … Debt aversion had the greatest impact on the participation of the very groups the government most wants to attract into HE." (Attitudes to Debt, Universities UK/HEFCE 2002, p. 155). Summarising research for the Student Income and Expenditure Survey 2002-2003 - commissioned by the Department for Education - she concludes: "Top-up fees of £3000 will put even more poor students off university." (Times Higher Education Supplement, 21 November 2003)