National Union of Students president Aaron Porter writes about the huge responsibility facing the govt's new 'Advocate for Access to Education' Simon Hughes.
Yesterday I sent a letter to Simon Hughes MP, marking his appointment as the government’s ‘Advocate for Access to Education’. I welcome the creation of this role and I plan to work with Mr Hughes to influence the implementation of the government’s plans for further and higher education to ensure that as few students as possible are put off by the rise in tuition fees, and progress to widen access to students from disadvantaged backgrounds continues.
Make no mistake, the rise in tuition fees and cuts to funding and access schemes will damage access, but I have a responsibility to work to ensure a fairer deal for students wherever opportunities exist and whatever the overall picture. To cease to engage in the process now would lead to further damage for students. It is more vital now than ever that we push for protections to access.
Figures from UCAS yesterday suggested that one in three applicants could miss out on a university place next year as students hoping to beat the rise in fees compete with the hundreds of thousands that missed out in the last couple of years.
Placing arbitrary limits on the number of places will almost inevitably exclude talented and ambitious candidates, denying them the chance to fulfil their potential at a time when our economic recovery desperately needs talented people with good qualifications. It is a fact that virtually every developed nation is investing in higher education in order to aid economic recovery – just the UK and Romania are reducing investment.
Facing the difficult circumstances we are presented with Simon Hughes now has a vital role in protecting university education and the hopes and ambitions of a generation. His record so far has not been good – letting his constituents down by abstaining on the vote setting an example for other abstentions and allowing the bill to pass – but he has always spoken of the importance of ensuring fair access even whilst speaking about the plans to raise tuition fees, so I believe we can work constructively with him on this matter.
In my letter I made a series of recommendations to Mr Hughes that should form his initial priorities as he takes on his new role.
First, he should ensure clarification of the Government’s ‘National Scholarship Scheme’, this should have been finalised before fees were allowed to rise, it was not and it becomes increasingly urgent that students are told how its funds will be directed.
He must ensure too that the government is held to its promise that only in ‘exceptional circumstances’ would universities be permitted to raise fees to more than £6,000 and also that there be real requirements on universities to ensure they recruit from under-represented groups. The current record, particularly of the most famous universities, in recruiting from disadvantaged groups is appalling and must be reversed.
He should work towards the reinstatement of the much under-rated AimHigher scheme which worked with younger people from disadvantaged backgrounds to promote applications for university and raise aspiration amongst groups where levels of application are currently very low.
It is important too that the government addresses the concerns of those in the Muslim community who feel that the rise in the interest rate on tuition fee loans means they feel unable to access them. These concerns have been raised with ministers but so far there has been no response.
Finally, and potentially most importantly, Simon Hughes must call for the instatement of the Education Maintenance Allowance.
The EMA is a vital lifeline for many studying at A-Level and is proven to improve achievement and attainment for those from poorer backgrounds. The Institute for Fiscal Studies analysed the cost-effectiveness of the EMA and found that for any expected outcome it was an effective and worthwhile tool. It has already been scrapped and Mr Hughes has been given jurisdiction only to recommend how its paltry replacement funds are spent but he must fight for the full reinstatement of the EMA.
The UCAS figures underline just how fiercely university places will be fought for until government begins investing in higher education again. Mr Hughes is in a position to ensure that it is not those from the wealthiest backgrounds or the sharpest elbows that get to university but rather those with greatest ambition and the potential to benefit most.
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26 Responses to “Simon Hughes has a huge responsibility to ensure fair access to universities”
hens4freedom
RT @leftfootfwd: Simon Hughes has a huge responsibility to ensure fair access to universities: http://bit.ly/fOJNNu writes @AaronPorter
Anon E Mouse
Why is it the only time students seem to be bitching is when it involves their personal circumstances and money?
All credit to Peter Hain who fought against racism as a student, a cause worth protesting about.
If anyone thinks the working classes in this country will have sympathy because some student’s beer money – sorry EMA – is taken from them needs to get real because these selfish middle class wusses are doing the governments job for them…
Mr. Sensible
Mr Mouse, a good deal of the students who are protesting won’t actually be effected themselves; they are either studying already or have already graduated.
They’re concerned about access for the next group.
cim
Placing arbitrary limits on the number of places will almost inevitably exclude talented and ambitious candidates
This is true. Removing this limit, however, requires moving from a “block grant” funding model for undergraduate teaching to a “per-student” model, which means cutting every university’s paper teaching grant to zero or near-zero if you still give a STEM lab-based supplement, and letting them compete in a market for individually-funded student places instead (as they currently do for postgraduate and international undergraduate places already). It also makes it much simpler for the entirety of teaching costs to be charged as tuition fees rather than partly as fees and partly as direct government grants, though this isn’t absolutely necessary. (The government pays up-front either way, of course, but the funding to do so comes from different sources, and whether you call it a fee loan, a graduate contribution, a graduate tax, or general taxation doesn’t make that much difference)
Alternatively, as the protestors (implicitly) suggest we could retain the status quo where there is relatively little market-style competition between universities, a definite (too low?) limit on places set by HEFCE et al and enforced by fines, but much less risk of under-recruiting universities going bankrupt or being forced into mergers.
Is this a change of direction by NUS to broadly accept the principles of Browne but to have concerns about the details of implementation?
Anon E Mouse
Mr.Sensible – What you say may well be true but why can’t these students just go and get part time jobs instead of putting their hand out expecting the state to provide free money.
What all these types of articles show is that Labour and their supporters really don’t get it. The days of huge state monopolies and government controlling every aspect of our lives are over. Gone. Socialism is dead and is not coming back.
Oh there will be losers bleating like helpless sheep because this or that has gone but eventually they will have to live with the new reality.
Every country is doing it – like the last Labour treasury minister said “There’s no money left” after his party had totally bankrupted the country and left someone else to sort the mess out.
The old ways of wasting other peoples money are over and I would suggest that people get used to it and move on…