Higher Education Minister Bill Rammell said that the Government would continue to take action to break down barriers to university education faced by people from disadvantaged backgrounds.

Speaking during a debate in the House of Commons on Thursday 16 March, he asserted that the future success of the UK depended on widening participation, and that those with talent and ability should be able to pursue higher education regardless of their 'background, class or bank balance'.

In other contributions, Labour MP Dr. Hywel Francis said: “I have been impressed by NUS representations, which reminded us recently that 42 per cent. of HE students are part-time, yet the equalities review of March 2007 shows that the great expansion in higher education has apparently led to an increase of only three percentage points in the number of graduates from the poorest families

Conservative backbencher Rob Wilson said: “NUS also makes a significant point about the 42 per cent of higher education students who are part-time, about whose socio-economic class we do not have much information”.

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