National student grant cut to improve government finance

The government has begun to undertake measures to reduce spending on student finance and educational spending through alterations to the student grants system.

This will be undertaken in three distinct approaches: investigation into fraud, reduction of grant rates and even the possibility of the removal of the university fee limit in the light of a more ‘market orientated’ education system.

The University of Warwick’s Student’s Union remains critical of the government’s cutbacks on student grants. “It’s not about trying to recover from the economic crisis that we’re in,” explained Union Governance and Finance Officer, Andy Glyde, “but [it is because the government] genuinely miscalculated how many students there would be eligible for these grants.”

The government Department for Innovation, Universities and Skills (DIUS) is aiming to work with the Student Loans Company to reduce fraud and to ensure better targeting of funds to the needed.

Peter Dunn, Press and Media Relations Manager for the University of Warwick, clarified that issue of fraud on student loans is not a problem in Warwick, while Glyde said the existence of such problem is “impossible to say” due to the practical difficulties of uncovering it without thorough investigation.

In terms of the number of grants to be cut, it has been anticipated that about 10 per cent of grant recipients will lose their grant altogether nationwide. Dunn insisted that the cut will not make Warwick more exclusive to the wealthy and the university has no plan to prioritise subjects for the increasingly demanded bursaries.

Glyde further explained that the cut back on grants may mean the even the least affected students may still find themselves with up to 500 pounds less than what they used to have last year.

On the removal of the university fees limits, Glyde assured the Boar that the National Union of Students and Warwick SU will definitely stand against any potential proposition of such drastic fees increase. “A lot of people will be pushed beyond their ability to go to universities,” Glyde explained, “I think there [will] definitely [be] a psychological barrier [for people] who have to pay too much to go to universities.”

However, the government is over-stretched financially and may need a change in the fee system. With the heavy burden on the HM Treasury coupled with the current financial downturn, the government’s ability to sustain the deficit is highly questionable. Glyde noted that to increase tax in order to cover deficits caused by higher education would be “political suicidal”.

“The NUS is doing a lot of research at the moment into an alternative model for higher education funding to see whether there is a better way for funding higher education than through fees.” concluded Glyde. The details of such alternative model remains unclear at this stage as Glyde suggested the reports of the research will be released “some time next year”.

Many students will need to tighten their belts in the upcoming academic year as the government cuts back on higher educational subsidies.