Latest editorial
AXING maintenance grants for the poorest undergraduates to replace them with loans will saddle them with “a lifetime of debt,” the National Union of Students (NUS) said yesterday.
The government ended the grants worth around £3,500 a year yesterday. It announced that loans are available but would need repaying once a graduate starts earning £21,000 or more.
This change by the Tories will hit students from low-income families who are more likely to have applied for grants and are less able to afford high rents and living costs, critics say.
Cuts are sweeping campuses as cash-strapped universities slash staff and politicians fail to act on a growing funding emergency. VINCE MILLS reports
Almost half of universities face deficits, merger mania is taking hold, and massive fee hikes that will lock out working-class students are on the horizon, write RUBEN BRETT, PAUL WHITEHOUSE and DAN GRACE