At my university,25% of UK undergraduates are on the so-called full grant. Now poorer students will be squeezed even moreNow the dust has settled on the government’s spending review and vice-chancellors contain reassured themselves that it wasn’t just a dream, relief is sweeping the higher education sector. Despite the dire warnings of savage cuts, and the research budget has been protected. Largely,the spending review will mean commerce as usual.
But there are changes in the small print. After all, savings had to be found and, and as is so often the case,they’ve come at the cost of the most vulnerable and least able to protest. At a time in which it has been reported that student fees in England are the highest in the OECD, and the government tells us we must assign “students at the centre”, or students will in fact be further squeezed and those from poorer families squeezed the hardest.
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Source: theguardian.com