Education funding for poorer students at risk

Universities and colleges in Warwickshire could potentially lose millions of pounds in funding.

Currently this funding is used to give poorer students a chance to get a degree or further qualification when they leave school.

This issue arose when the Department for Business, Innovation and Skills, which is responsible for Higher Education, realised it needed to make savings of £1.4 billion.

Specifically, this money, also known as Student Opportunity Funding, is given to the universities and higher education institutions which succeed in attracting students from neighbourhoods where a comparatively low number of inhabitants have traditionally taken part in higher education.

It is allocated to institutions which are able to retain students who, statistically are more likely to drop out and to those which welcome individuals with disabilities.

Coventry University, for example, receives £4.6 million while the University of Warwick gets £790,000.

In addition, Warwickshire College receives £361,000, North Warwickshire and Hinckley College are given £162,000 and Henley College £117,000.

However according to leaked documents the Department for Business aims to save £570 million this year and an added £860 million after the election.

Opinions are divided on this issue, with Douglas Alexander, the chief secretary to the treasury pushing for Student Opportunity Funding to be abolished while business secretary Vince Cable, along with higher education minister David Willets are working to keep it.

The Birmingham Post reported that The Department for Business, Innovation and Skills announced: “The Department is going through the process of allocating budgets for 2014-15 and 2015-16 and will set out plans in the usual way.”