The announcement that student loan interest rates will rise to up to 12% (13 April) is yet another government attack on opportunities for underprivileged students to access the higher education that can give them social mobility and career fulfilment. Education mandarins set admission targets for universities to embrace “widening participation” – students from poor backgrounds and often poor schools should be offered university places with lower grades to compensate for their lack of privilege.
From another corner of education policy comes sustained attacks on student loans – already a significant disincentive to poorer students. Of course these changes affect all students, but will fall disproportionately on those from underprivileged backgrounds who will be fearful of lifelong debt for an intangible investment in education.
I am among the privileged elite who went to university in the 1970s, with all fees paid. As my mother was a single parent earning low wages, I was also given a huge cost-of-living grant. For the first time I did not need a Saturday job. I could concentrate on my studies and write for the Newcastle University student newspaper: my entry into journalism and television. I was the first and only woman to edit ITV’s current affairs programme World in Action; I then launched This Morning and created Loose Women. Would I have gone to university under this government? I doubt it.
Dianne Nelmes
London
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