It was announced this week in the Chancellor’s Summer Budget that maintenance grants for higher education students will be replaced with a maintenance loan due to come into effect for the 2016 academic year.
It was announced this week in the Chancellor’s Summer Budget that maintenance grants for higher education students will be replaced with a maintenance loan due to come into effect for the 2016 academic year. The replacement of the grant with a loan will see students applying for a loan of up to £8,200, and these will be repaid on earnings over £21,000. At present, this change from maintenance grants to loans will only apply to students from England.
Under the current system, students from families earning under £25,000 per year are awarded a grant of £3,387 to aid with living expenses whilst studying. The grant offered a sense of security for these students by providing them with the knowledge that they would be able to afford university life. Furthermore this meant that the decision to apply to university was coupled less with the worry of living expenses and more with the value of education. The scrapping of the grant could potentially cause many students from lower income families to be put off from applying to university, as they will now face an increased debt at the end of their studies.
This couples the announcement that universities will have the ability to increase their tuition fees in line with inflation if they can prove that high teaching quality is on offer at their institution.
The Nation Union of Students (NUS) has estimated that since the withdrawal of the Education Maintenance Allowance (EMA) students starting university in 2016 have access to £12,500 less in non-repayable financial support than those who began their degrees in 2010. Welsh students have recently suffered further with cuts to the Financial Contingency Fund, which helps students meet costs not met from other funds, provides emergency financial help and aids in keeping students at university when they are considering leaving due to financial problems.
The Chancellor says he is 'not prepared' to see a decline in student numbers, however is ignoring the fact that the maintenance grant has helped many students access higher education despite their background and family income. Here at Aberystwyth, we do not want to see students not taking up their well-earned places at university due to financial worry. As a Students’ Union, we need to be prepared to fight against these attempts to reduce the support on offer for our students. With 4,085 English students at Aberystwyth in the 2014/15 academic year, there is the potential for this motion to affect a large proportion of our student body.
NUS President Megan Dunn announced that her priority campaign this year will be #CutTheCosts, evidencing the impact of the cuts on students and delivering this to Westminster in a national lobby.
AberSU President, Lewis Donnelly stated:
“The officer team here at AberSU are in full support of the campaign as this will affect all students across the UK. Although English students will not be receiving less money from student finance, it does mean they will be leaving university with considerably more debt than previous years. However, wealth cannot replace the welfare of our students.”
If you have any concerns or questions regarding this issue, please feel free to contact our Advice Centre by e-mail; union.advice@aber.ac.uk
Lewis Donnelly
President
union.president@aber.ac.uk
Lauren Marks
Education Officer
union.education@aber.ac.uk