Published in The Times Higher Education Supplement
The new support arrangements will ensure students are not deterred financially, insists Martin Harris
Today represents a significant milestone in the evolution of student support as English universities and colleges announce a diverse range of creative financial packages that will be available for students entering higher education from 2006.
It was always clear to me that the sector would vigorously continue to seek out those candidates with the aptitudes necessary to benefit from higher education. And I knew that every effort would be made to ensure that no-one was deterred from seeking admission on financial grounds. But others in Parliament and among the wider public needed reassurance, and thus the Office for Fair Access (OFFA) was born.
Our intention from the start has been very simple – we have sought, through frank ongoing dialogue with the sector and individual institutions, to ensure the emergence of as generous a set of student support arrangements as possible. But all the while we have respected the very different starting points of the various universities and colleges as well as Charles Clarke’s unambiguous advice that institutions should retain for their own purposes ‘the lion’s share’ of the additional resources raised from increased fees.
The outcome is diverse, but overall very satisfying, with offers ranging from cash bursaries, through scholarship schemes to subject specific support. This reflects the conscious decision we took at the outset to rely as much as practicable on the individual processes of strongly autonomous institutions with the minimum possible bureaucratic burden, and it is for this reason that the credit must go the universities and colleges themselves.
It was predictable in my view that the combination of trust in the sector and the establishment of a genuinely independent regulator in the form of OFFA, whose independence the government has always fully respected, could only lead to an outcome from which future students would gain.
We have also encouraged institutions to make all their efforts at widening participation transparent. There is a very good story to tell, which can be gleaned from reading the access agreements as a whole.
We have seen two complementary agendas addressed simultaneously. The first was the wish to encourage anyone who is appropriately qualified to seek entry to the institution most suited to his or her aptitudes, regardless of personal circumstances. The second was the need to ensure that no-one is deterred from applying to higher education on financial grounds.
Our clear resolve not to interfere in university admissions has greatly reassured those who were cautious, and it is certainly clear from today’s announcement that this has not impacted in any way on institutions’ determination to provide a range of measures to encourage applications from a diverse student population.
But much still remains to be done. The needs of part-time students – a key group in the widening participation agenda – must be addressed as a matter of urgency, while the special role played by colleges of Further Education in providing higher education to those who might otherwise not continue with their formal studies has to be taken into account. Perhaps most important of all, we will need to play a major role in evaluating what actually happens as the new regime of fees and student support takes effect during 2006.
I have absolutely no doubt that institutions will honour the promises they are today making to future students. But in the report I am required to make to Parliament, I will seek to establish whether enough is being done to help students who accept places in institutions that are committed to widening participation but do not gain enough new income from fees to provide the level of bursary that they would like. This in my view will be of central importance when the government of the day decides how to proceed after 2009.
But these issues lie in the future. Today, potential students and their parents should celebrate the scholarships and bursaries that colleges and universities are putting in place as their contribution to the Fair Access agenda. These plans should go a very long way towards ensuring that no-one is deterred on financial grounds from seeking the benefits which higher education can undoubtedly bring.
Sir Martin Harris, Director of the Office for Fair Access