After less than a year of the new bursaries system, the director of the Office for Fair Access (Offa) is threatening to pull the plug on it. Sir Martin Harris, appointed by the government to monitor widening participation in higher education, has stated in an interview with the Guardian that the bursary support that provides a lifeline for many students could be removed.
This is a prime case of fuzzy logic, writes Gemma Tumelty, president of the National Union of Students.
Sir Martin incorrectly reasons the following - levels of participation have not risen; bursaries are not working.
Apparently befuddled as to why policy makers who have been "striving for years" to widen participation have failed, he ignores the invisible elephant of top-up fees.
Bursaries were not introduced in a vacuum, but instead as an attempt to offset the £3,000 a year fees, introduced at most universities last year.
In spite of government drives to increase levels to 50% by 2010, widening participation for underrepresented groups has flatlined. Those from the lowest socio-economic groups are no more likely to access higher education than they were before. And at least part of the reason widening participation figures did not plummet is the increase in student support.
More should undoubtedly be done to encourage aspiration from an earlier age, but this should not be at the expense of top-slicing student support and pulling the rug from underneath the feet of students about to go to university who have already jumped high hurdles.
We cannot allow Offa to backtrack on their commitment to poorer students. Bursaries are not perfect, but they are under a year old and could be improved. A 2007 poll commissioned by the DfES showed that almost two-thirds of young people were unaware that universities and colleges were offering non-repayable bursaries. How about we start with raising awareness as a first step?
The NUS is also calling for the bureaucratic bursary scheme to be simplified. Some universities have up to four different types of bursary - a means-tested £300, another means-tested top-up, a bursary that relates to students' prior academic achievements, and a bursary for school outreach schemes. There is further confusion about eligibility, how to apply and when to apply.
Bursaries haven't failed, only those who so haphazardly implemented them.
