Social Change, Social Policy and Social Work in the New Europe by Anna Kwak Robert Dingwall

Author:Anna Kwak, Robert Dingwall [Anna Kwak, Robert Dingwall]
Language: eng
Format: epub
ISBN: 9781138343405
Barnesnoble:
Publisher: Taylor & Francis
Published: 2020-02-12T00:00:00+00:00

Reduced State Support for Students

British students entering higher education in the 1990s receive much less state support than in the past. Following the Robbins expansion, university students were entitled to appropriate welfare benefits in addition to a small but mandatory maintenance grant adjusted to take account of parental income. During the 1980s, these benefit entitlements (other than health care) were withdrawn from students and tax arrangements changed so that parents were no longer able to claim an allowance for their dependent children in higher education. Then, in 1989, the level of maintenance grants was frozen. They have since been cut still further (by 10 per cent in each of the academic years 1994-97) whilst the costs of travel, books and accommodation have risen faster than the general level of inflation. The political defence offered for this series of cost-cutting exercises, that Britain previously ‘had the most generous system of student support in the western world’ is without foundation (Lawrence, 1991).

As a consequence of the cuts, students have had to take out increasingly large loans and leave university in considerable debt (Judd, 1995; Ward, 1995; Berliner, 1995). The fifth annual Barclays Student Debt Survey published in 1996 revealed that, on average, the amount students owed had doubled since 1992 and that, on average, they anticipated being about £3,000 in debt on graduation (Abrams, 1996). That figure, as the final section in the chapter will show, is soon to increase around four fold.

These financial circumstances have inevitably led to an increasing ‘drop out’ rate. In the early 1990s, about 13 per cent of students did not complete their courses. By 1996, the proportion who started but did not graduate was close to 20 per cent. More specific research, conducted by the Committee of Vice Chancellors and Principals, showed that the annual drop-out rate, i.e. the proportion of students leaving in each academic year, had risen from 5 per cent in 1993 to 6.5 per cent in 1995 (Kirkman, 1996). Despite the fact that the proportion dropping out of higher education had become so large that it actually threatens to eclipse the expansion, governments continue to boast about the record numbers starting courses but ignore the uncomfortable fact that only 80 per cent of them graduate.

An equally crucial point about the current numbers of university drop-outs is that only a small minority leave because they fail their examinations. The large majority leave for financial reasons. Moreover, what is not known is how many of those who do leave for academic reasons may have failed their examinations because they were obliged to work during term time. As a spokesperson for the Committee of Vice Chancellors and Principals has admitted:

Financial hardship and academic failure are often connected. Students fail their courses for economic reasons. They may be working their way through university and spending too much time doing a part-time job and not enough in the library (Judd, 1996a).

This is a particularly significant consideration given that, in recognition of the hardship faced by many students, one in three universities now runs a job bureau for them.

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