As the level of fees to be charged by England's top universities has been announced and the government’s panic reaction has been the threat of yet more targets, there has been a suggestion from some quarters that schools and colleges will be to blame if the number of students applying to university from poorer backgrounds drops once tuition fees increase. Pointing the blame at schools is a smoke screen that masks the real issue -many young people will be put off by the thought of having to pay back tens of thousands of pounds once they start working. Parents who are neither the lowest nor high earners will understandably warn their sons and daughters against taking on significant debts. Those are the young people who won’t be eligible for grants or scholarships or free school meals, but will still find it a hardship to pay for living expenses, never mind paying back huge chunks of money when they graduate.
Schools and colleges have put a tremendous amount of effort into raising aspirations of students who have the ability but possibly not the confidence to aim for a university degree. When the A Level results were published last summer we saw an increase in the numbers of young people who have clearly chosen their subjects with the labour market in mind. Results continue to improve with students working harder than ever to gain top grades. This has been supported by a raft of initiatives to help young people stay in education and aspire to university – not just education maintenance allowance but programmes like Aim Higher – which have made a real difference to students’ aspirations. One by one these initiatives have lost their funding and schools have been left high and dry when trying to maintain this important provision. They are trying hard to do this but it is an uphill struggle in which not all will succeed.
The other element to consider is high quality careers advice and guidance. The Connexions service which used to provide this is being dismantled in many areas. The government is planning an all-age careers service, a concept which ASCL fully supports, but at the moment the detail of how this will operate or be funded is alarmingly absent. Once again the government has put the cart before the horse, dismantling one structure before it has thought through how it will pick up the pieces. Schools and colleges are completely in the dark about how this will operate in practice.
Schools and colleges will continue to do all they can to raise aspirations, but the bottom line is that they can’t do it in a vacuum. No matter how good their grades are and how well they are coached to pass an Oxbridge entrance exam, if they have to find an additional £40 or £50k for the privilege, many will say no.
