Low-Income Students Bear the Brunt of Inadequate Student Financing

With the excitement and commotion of students ready to kick off the start of spring term, unfortunately is accompanied by many students with quite a frightening apprehension regarding their student funding. Many students at Warwick have been particularly concerned about whether their loans and grants will arrive in time after troubles with their financing at the beginning of the year.

Like many students, I found myself waiting just over a month after the start of term in October, to receive my full student financing – after the SLC left me without any grant to which I was entitled to; and only a basic loan, despite applying for a higher loan – leaving me with less than half of what I was entitled to.

Whilst my parents struggled, under the circumstances, to assist me with supporting myself through my first term, I couldn’t help thinking about those students whose parents might not be able to, or rather, even willing to do the same. Had my parents not been able to help me, I could have been forced to drop out of university altogether.

At this point in time, the SLC provided me with a maintenance loan of £3,000 a year (the basic loan rather than the higher loan of about £5,000 pa) – this being less than half of the costs of my accommodation fees. After monotonously ringing student finance every day, and repeatedly being told that my parents hadn’t provided enough evidence of their financial history (despite the fact, that this had already been done several times), I started to wonder why the family income of an adult student is even relevant to deducing whether a repayable loan should be given. Obviously this matter is something to be dealt with in regards to financial grants for low-income students, but surely it would be easier to leave the loan and grant applications left separate.

The situation also led me to speculate just why student loans are capped off at £5,555 per year. According to the survey, carried out by Blackbullion, one in 10 undergraduates admit that it is likely they will have to drop out of university because they can’t afford to continue with their studies. So why is the repayable loan limited to such a miniscule amount?

It is alarming to see just how many students at Warwick are receiving financial help from their parents. After interviewing several students, it was revealed that students are receiving up to £250 a week in financial aid from their parents in addition to their student maintenance loans.

Jade Cant, a biomedical science student from Wigan, discloses that she, like many of her friends, receives £100 a week in financial help from her parents, and expresses her contempt with the student finance system:

‘I think people should be able to borrow at least enough to cover living costs and the costs of accommodation. The system fails to take into account how many other dependants the household might have, and if the parents are supporting any other student who may also need financial help’.

Just like Jade, more and more students are developing a distaste for the inflexible system provided by the SLC, and students are increasingly demanding reform.