Student Finance Picture by Kevin Wilkins

A new advertising campaign launched by the Department for Innovation Universities and Skills (DIUS) demonstrates the intention to increase financial support for students in higher education whilst existing students continue with a bad deal.

The increase in grant thresholds, which will come into effect in September 2008, will see existing students on the old scheme studying alongside new entrants with significantly improved funding.

The maximum household income for getting support will rise from £39,000 to £60,000, meaning more students will be eligible for grants. This is a positive move and something that is long overdue; the government is finally taking action against the financial burden of university. Unfortunately this comes too late for existing students as these new higher levels of support will only become available for new students starting in 2008.

Current students will continue to have the old threshold of £39,000 for the remainder of their studies while paying the same fees as new students, of whom two thirds will be eligible for some sort of non repayable grant.

A typical student can end up with debt of over £20,000 for a three year university degree and may have to work long hours to survive at university.

 Maintanance Grant for new students starting in 2008/09

Maintanance Grant for exisiting students in 2008/09

As you can see from these figures released by the DIUS, current students will be significantly financially disadvantaged compared with new first years.

We asked DUIS for a statement regarding why current students are not eligible for this new support and they refused to comment. We were passed onto the Student Support Department of the Student Loans Company. They said ‘Student support is worked out for what is appropriate at the time’.

Elle Gray, The President of UPSU had this to say: “I think the only reason the support is changing is because of the upcoming General Election”.

Comments have been closed for this article

 

 

To be fair, current students don't have it that bad. A statistic given to me by student finance 2 years ago stated that only 10% of Portsmouth students who were eligible for a bursary or grant of some kind claimed it, with 90% not bothering or not knowing that they were eligible.

Matt - Wed, 14 Nov 2007

 

 

I completely agree that it is appauling that there should be two years of students who are stuck with the burden of the increased tuition fees but yet recieve very minimal government help. We have therefore created a petition on the 10 Downing Street website, asking for all students who have to pay increased fees to be treated equally. The address is: 
http://petitions.pm.gov.uk/fairdealonfees/ 
and we also have a facebook group which can be found at: 
http://sussex.facebook.com/group.php?gid=21110790243&ref=mf 
We are currently in the process of writing to our MP to try and raise the issue in Parliament. Would anyone who agress that the new, more generous, financing arrangements should be available to all those who are lumbered with the increased tuition fees please sign the petition, and circulate it to others who may also be interested, and hopefully we can make the system fairer.

Katie - Mon, 25 Feb 2008

 

 

This is disgusting, I entered university in 2007 and have had to get a job in order to survive at university which has conflicted with my studies, while students entering only a year later paying the SAME fees will gain more grants! I would received the full grant but because i entered in 2007 I am being penalised for this. The government should be ashamed, you either give the grants to ALL students paying the top up fees or NONE.

Mon, 25 Feb 2008