Speaking to students at UEA recently, it struck me how much is made within the student movement about how difficult it is for students from disadvantaged backgrounds to enter higher education. I thought I'd outline my thoughts against the usual consensus on this issue.

The Labour government has long attempted to sound like it was addressing this issue by taking universities on head first (everyone remembers John Prescott's little war on this issue)

And yet despite this, a report for HEFCE found that admissions in fact favoured applications from working class candidates, and John Denham actually admits that “there is no widespread dissatisfaction with most admissions.” So where is the Government going wrong?

There are two main issues here

I come from one of those ‘disadvantaged’ backgrounds myself. Single parent family, brought up in one of the poorest boroughs in the country and an ethnic minority. Statistically, I should be out mugging old ladies, or something.

Labour Party supporters say that people like me are dissuaded from university and dissuaded from ‘the professions’ (i.e. medicine, law, accountancy, etc) because we can't afford the huge costs and resulting debts that are required. And yet - I'm an accountant, my first brother is a solicitor and my youngest brother is a trainee doctor at medical school.

My family
So is my family a unique exception - or is the Labour Party missing something on this issue?

I'd suggest the problem isn't primarily one of money (although that is of course a factor), but is one of aspiration. My family might have fitted every stereotype of a socially dysfunctional contribution to society. But my father always put education first and despite our background, there was never any question that we'd all do our best to get to university and begin careers we could be proud of.

UNICEF published research on the aspirations of children from across the world - children from the UK came out bottom of all western countries. We have had a government who for the last 11-years has seen ambition and the desire for social advancement to be something to be ashamed of. Instead of encouraging the most disadvantaged young people to work hard and achieve better for themselves, the over extended claim of ‘entitlement’ gives young people no incentive to aspire, instead it fits perfectly with the Labour government's ambition to maintain the status quo in our society and create ‘equality’ through the taxation system and forcing universities to admit students based on factors other than academic merit.

UNICEF proved that our major obstacle to social equality is that education isn't seen as attractive to many in our country. Not because of any financial difficulties in entering education, but because education isn't relevant to the aspirations and desires of many potential students. So we as a student movement, and political parties in government have two choices. Keep the status quo, and force the disadvantaged through a further and higher education system that they don't identify with or adapt education to meet the needs of everyone, proving that aspiration isn't something to be ashamed of.
This links to the second issue

Reassure
The Labour government has insisted that universities publish an admissions policy to "reassure the public." Instead of burdening students with ever more stringent and ridiculous red tape like this, wouldn't it ‘reassure the public’ a lot more, if they saw universities providing courses that were more relevant to the lives of potential students?

Last month, John Hayes the shadow Lifelong Learning, Further Education and Higher Education minister, gave a speech on this issue at Birkbeck University.

The term-based, full-time, three year degree fits many students very well. But he pointed out that if you have children, if you need to work to support yourself, if existing obligations means you need to study from home, if you need a degree that combines academic study with practical experience - what university carers for you then? The answer: not many.

This is a good point. Wouldn’t it ‘reassure’ you a lot more if the universities in question were able to offer you academic courses that fit much better with the current circumstances in your life? What about higher education courses within community further education colleges, modular and distance learning, internet courses - won't these widen access far more than any head-to-head showdown between universities and the government?

Truly amazing
Many of us had truly amazing experiences at college and university. This makes us eager to ensure that as many other people can also experience what we did. But the fact is, the rigid education structure we enjoyed is often the very reason others can't participate in education in the first place.

But there are also those from disadvantaged backgrounds like mine, who could enjoy the traditional old education structure, but don't feel education relevant to them. In these cases we need a government and a national social policy that encourages aspiration and economic betterment, not a policy that considers such desires something to be ashamed of.

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