This government’s latest education innovation? Shutting poorer students out of university

‘Not only are they attacking current undergraduates who will be entering an increasingly costly world, but they are disincentivising education.’ Photograph: David Cheskin/PA

Over the past decade, students in England have been subjected to a barrage of reforms that have made their lives worse. It started in 2012, when the coalition government’s decision to allow universities to triple tuition fees to £9,000 a year came into effect. It continued with the scrapping of maintenance grants in 2016, and ministers’ failure to address student accommodation costs, which have rocketed by 60% since 2011.

Now, in a long-awaited response to the 2019 Augar review of post-18 education, Boris Johnson’s government is proposing more changes that have flown under the radar – and we can’t let it get away with them.