In my piece yesterday “Brown flounders” I added a short note from
David Willetts, Shadow University Secretary where he condemned the
government's plans to lower the income bar for student grants.
He said: "it’s a very heavy blow to middle-income families. It’s all
the worse for coming now when tens of thousands of students have
already applied for university. That really is extraordinary
incompetence by the government."
Mr. Willetts continued: "This is unprecedented. It shows that Gordon
Brown can’t get his sums right. It’s students and their families
that are going to be the victims."
HERE is the full story.
Apart from the obvious class warfare aspect of this it is going to
have the effect of dumbing down the Universities still further. So
dire is the state secondary education in general that the great
majority of the applications for the top universities for the science-
based and technical courses come from the independent schools where
parents have made huge sacrifices to ensure good education for their
children. It is those who have made these sacrifices from the middle-
income groups who are being targeted because of a government
blunder. The children of the rich won’t suffer.
The effect will be either a lowering of the standards for the
demanding and rigorous studies or vacant places which will be sold to
foreign students. This is mortgaging the nation’s future.
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TELEGRAPH 30.10.08
MIDDLE CLASS STUDENTS LOSE GRANTS - not on line . Wassa matter with 'em?
=======================================
THE TIMES 30.10.08
Thousands of students worse off after error leads to a cut in
university grants
Joanna Sugden
Middle-income parents will have to pay more for their children’s
university education after the Government miscalculated the number of
students eligible for grants. It has reneged on some of its funding
commitments after admitting that it had underestimated the number of
people entitled to a full student maintenance grant this year by
almost 10 per cent.
It has now reduced the income threshold for the means-tested
maintenance grant by 17 per cent to £50,020. Families earning below
£25,000 will still get the full grant of £2,835. But about 40,000
prospective students – 10 per cent of next year’s intake – are
expected to lose out.
A full or partial grant, which covers living costs but not fees, was
made available to all students whose parents earned up to £60,000,
for the first time this year. Previously the cap was £39,305. The
reforms, brought in during the first days of Gordon Brown’s
premiership, were designed to attract more working-class students
into higher education. A third of students were expected to be
eligible for a full grant.
Admitting the £200 million funding gap, John Denham, the Universities
Secretary, said: “It is obviously an adjustment compared with what is
in place for students who went to college or university this year. We
have done it to get the right balance between my decision to spend
more on student finance, because of the number of low-income students
in the system, and the need to make some changes to the student
finance system so that the system comes into equilibrium.”
The number of extra student places will also be reduced from 15,000
to 10,000 next year to help to plug the funding gap. It makes the
Government’s aspiration for 50 per cent of all young people to enter
higher education by 2010 impossible to fulfil.
Student unions and opposition parties accused the Department for
Innovation, Universities and Skills of incompetence and of playing
fast and loose with students’ futures as the country enters a recession.
Malcolm Keight, head of higher education at the University and
College Union, said that the Government’s lack of strategy for
student funding threatened to “throw the whole system into chaos”.
David Willetts, the Shadow Universities Secretary, said that the
announcement was embarrassing for Mr Brown. “His own policy is
unravelling,” he said. “It shows that they have been completely taken
by surprise and the figures they based their estimates on last year
didn’t add up.”
Wes Streeting, president of the National Union of Students, said that
the Government needed to “stop tinkering with grants and fees every
year, and recognise that the entire higher education funding system
is unsustainable. We need a proper review of the system so that
parents and students know where they stand.”
Martin Freedman, head of pay, conditions and pensions at the
Association of Teachers and Lecturers, said: “Although this is
supposed to affect so-called middle-income families, the reduced
family-income threshold means students will be hit if they have two
parents who earn no more than an average salary.”
Bahram Bekhradnia, director of the Higher Education Policy Institute,
said that the reduction in the number of student places came as the
population of 18-year-olds was about to rise in the next two years.
Help while studying
— Students who entered higher education after 2005 can apply for
either a maintenance or special support grant of up to £2,835 if
their family income is less than £50,020 (down from £60,000)
— A maintenance grant is paid in place of a student loan for
maintenance. A special support grant is paid on top of the loan
— Those who qualify for a special support grant include single
parents or two parents who are students, disabled people and students
aged 60 and above
— All eligible, full-time students in higher education can take out a
student loan for tuition fees of up to £3,145 for this academic year
— Depending on income, students can also take out a student loan for
maintenance of up £6,475
David Willetts, Shadow University Secretary where he condemned the
government's plans to lower the income bar for student grants.
He said: "it’s a very heavy blow to middle-income families. It’s all
the worse for coming now when tens of thousands of students have
already applied for university. That really is extraordinary
incompetence by the government."
Mr. Willetts continued: "This is unprecedented. It shows that Gordon
Brown can’t get his sums right. It’s students and their families
that are going to be the victims."
HERE is the full story.
Apart from the obvious class warfare aspect of this it is going to
have the effect of dumbing down the Universities still further. So
dire is the state secondary education in general that the great
majority of the applications for the top universities for the science-
based and technical courses come from the independent schools where
parents have made huge sacrifices to ensure good education for their
children. It is those who have made these sacrifices from the middle-
income groups who are being targeted because of a government
blunder. The children of the rich won’t suffer.
The effect will be either a lowering of the standards for the
demanding and rigorous studies or vacant places which will be sold to
foreign students. This is mortgaging the nation’s future.
xxxxxxxxxx cs
=======================
TELEGRAPH 30.10.08
MIDDLE CLASS STUDENTS LOSE GRANTS - not on line . Wassa matter with 'em?
=======================================
THE TIMES 30.10.08
Thousands of students worse off after error leads to a cut in
university grants
Joanna Sugden
Middle-income parents will have to pay more for their children’s
university education after the Government miscalculated the number of
students eligible for grants. It has reneged on some of its funding
commitments after admitting that it had underestimated the number of
people entitled to a full student maintenance grant this year by
almost 10 per cent.
It has now reduced the income threshold for the means-tested
maintenance grant by 17 per cent to £50,020. Families earning below
£25,000 will still get the full grant of £2,835. But about 40,000
prospective students – 10 per cent of next year’s intake – are
expected to lose out.
A full or partial grant, which covers living costs but not fees, was
made available to all students whose parents earned up to £60,000,
for the first time this year. Previously the cap was £39,305. The
reforms, brought in during the first days of Gordon Brown’s
premiership, were designed to attract more working-class students
into higher education. A third of students were expected to be
eligible for a full grant.
Admitting the £200 million funding gap, John Denham, the Universities
Secretary, said: “It is obviously an adjustment compared with what is
in place for students who went to college or university this year. We
have done it to get the right balance between my decision to spend
more on student finance, because of the number of low-income students
in the system, and the need to make some changes to the student
finance system so that the system comes into equilibrium.”
The number of extra student places will also be reduced from 15,000
to 10,000 next year to help to plug the funding gap. It makes the
Government’s aspiration for 50 per cent of all young people to enter
higher education by 2010 impossible to fulfil.
Student unions and opposition parties accused the Department for
Innovation, Universities and Skills of incompetence and of playing
fast and loose with students’ futures as the country enters a recession.
Malcolm Keight, head of higher education at the University and
College Union, said that the Government’s lack of strategy for
student funding threatened to “throw the whole system into chaos”.
David Willetts, the Shadow Universities Secretary, said that the
announcement was embarrassing for Mr Brown. “His own policy is
unravelling,” he said. “It shows that they have been completely taken
by surprise and the figures they based their estimates on last year
didn’t add up.”
Wes Streeting, president of the National Union of Students, said that
the Government needed to “stop tinkering with grants and fees every
year, and recognise that the entire higher education funding system
is unsustainable. We need a proper review of the system so that
parents and students know where they stand.”
Martin Freedman, head of pay, conditions and pensions at the
Association of Teachers and Lecturers, said: “Although this is
supposed to affect so-called middle-income families, the reduced
family-income threshold means students will be hit if they have two
parents who earn no more than an average salary.”
Bahram Bekhradnia, director of the Higher Education Policy Institute,
said that the reduction in the number of student places came as the
population of 18-year-olds was about to rise in the next two years.
Help while studying
— Students who entered higher education after 2005 can apply for
either a maintenance or special support grant of up to £2,835 if
their family income is less than £50,020 (down from £60,000)
— A maintenance grant is paid in place of a student loan for
maintenance. A special support grant is paid on top of the loan
— Those who qualify for a special support grant include single
parents or two parents who are students, disabled people and students
aged 60 and above
— All eligible, full-time students in higher education can take out a
student loan for tuition fees of up to £3,145 for this academic year
— Depending on income, students can also take out a student loan for
maintenance of up £6,475
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