NUS: £24 million underspend on student support is alarming

The National Union of Students (NUS) has today responded to the publication of a report from the Office for Fair Access (OFFA) on access agreements, which shows that 58 per cent of higher education institutions (HEIs) have spent less than 90 per cent of their budget for spending their additional top-up fee income on financial support for students.

NUS Vice President (Education), Wes Streeting said:

“NUS is deeply disturbed that up to 12,000 students are missing out on financial support that they are entitled to according to data from the Student Loans Company (SLC).

“Given the drop in accepted applications from working class students over the past two years against an overall increase in accepted applicants revealed in the UCAS figures last week, this report underlines our view that the current system is failing to deliver on the Government’s widening access agenda.

“The £24 million underspend on what institutions planned to spend on bursaries and outreach activities is particularly concerning and we expect universities to reinvest this money in their widening participation activities.

“We expect institutions to begin urgent discussions with students' unions about the design and promotion of their bursary packages, and to implement OFFA's recommendation to retrospectively award bursaries to those students who were entitled to them.

“NUS believes that these problems would not exist if a national bursary scheme were in place. It would reduce bureaucracy and ensure that financial support is based on what students need, not where they study. We believe the case becomes more compelling with each passing year and we will make that case forcefully when the 2009 review begins its work."

Notes to editors

UCAS Applicant and accepted applicant socio-economic analysis over five years (2002 - 2005):

http://www.ucas.com/he_staff/stat_services1/stats_online/data_tables/abussocec

UCAS Final figures for 2007 entry:

http://www.ucas.com/website/news/media_releases/2008/Final-2007.doc

Accepted applicants:

2005 - 360,244; 2007 - 364,544

Accepted applicants from socio-economic backgrounds 4-7:

2005 - 89,050; 2007 - 87,946.

For more information contact the NUS Press Office on 02073806654 or 07977114623