Student loans don't deter low-income students: UK survey

The replacement of student allowances with loans in the United Kingdom did not affect the participation rate of low-income students at university, a ground-breaking survey finds.

The Higher Education Funding Council for England study looks at participation patterns between 1994 and 2000, and at what happened after the introduction of fees in 1998 and the replacement of grants with loans for the poorest students.

HEFCE chief executive Howard Newby said the introduction of tuition fees and the replacement of student grants by loans did not appear to have affected the choices of young people, even for those living in the poorest areas.

"For those who do make it into higher education from disadvantaged backgrounds, the overwhelming majority complete their courses and are even slightly more likely to go on to postgraduate study than other entrants," he said.

Bahram Bekhradnia, director of the Higher Education Policy Institute, notes that the research examines what people actually did, rather than what they said.

It showed an "apparent resilience of demand in the face of changed financial arrangements, irrespective of background".

"It would be wrong to deduce from this that financial issues are irrelevant, but, certainly, current fee levels and indebtedness don't seem to influence the decision to enter higher education," Mr Bekhradnia wrote.

Loans not likely a major election issue in UK

Backing up the survey's findings is a poll from the Times Higher Education Supplement released in late January showing only 20 percent of students will choose which way to vote at the next UK general election based on concerns about tuition fees.

This compares to 25 percent who said the economy or Iraq were the most decisive factors.

Students 'happy and financially confident'

Meanwhile, a survey released last month from UK university student accommodation provider Unite shows students to be generally "happy, confident, clean-living, well-organised and financially competent".

Unite chief executive Nicholas Porter said the current generation of students was "perhaps the first to accept and feel at ease with the fact that they will need to borrow to study and possibly work during term-time to fund basic essentials".

Resources

The HEFCE report: 'Young participation in higher education'.

Bahram Bekhradnia's commentary on the report.

A story on the THES poll.

A BBC story on the Unite survey.

An Education Forum hot topic on student loans in New Zealand.