POSTGRADUATE study is at risk of becoming the preserve of the well-off, the National Union of Students conference heard today.

Delegates backed a call for substantial schemes of bursaries and grants for postgraduate students from low-income backgrounds.

Currently, privately educated students are overrepresented on postgraduate courses.

Cardiff University student Jake Smith told the hall: “Postgraduates from the poorest backgrounds are currently denied bursaries that are available to undergraduate students.

“We risk postgraduate study becoming even more exclusive than it already is.”

Lancaster University’s Lucy Atkinson said that she had been forced to quit as a Labour councillor due to the toll exacted by having to work in the retail sector on top of her academic and political commitments.

But she said the motion missed the point, because the cost of living — and not academic costs — was the main issue affecting poor postgraduate students. “We think that a grant and loan system should apply to postgraduates as well,” she said.

Rachel Powell, of NUS-USI, which organises students in Northern Ireland, countered: “We should be arguing for free education for everyone, not for more loans and different types of loans.”

A motion in support of free higher education — which is NUS policy but remains contentious in the student movement — fell off the agenda today as time ran out.

Delegates had previously complained that a debate on Brexit was taking up too much time, denying students the chance to discuss more important issues.

NUS executive member Amelia Horgan argued that Brexit “does have an impact on education” but that issues such as the higher education strike and resistance to Tory policies should be prioritised.

Portsmouth University delegate James Thompson said: “There’s more to education than Brexit, for crying out loud.” He stressed the importance of cuts to mental-health support and the ballooning pay of vice-chancellors.

Executive member Darren Clarke argued: “The next time we meet we will have left the EU. We need to hear the student voice now.”