In his plea for the return of student grants (From children’s centres to student grants: a few items for the policy wish list, Education, 29 September), Bill Rammell repeats the canard that significant increases in tuition fees have not deterred access to higher education. This may be true in the case of younger full-time entrants to universities in England, but it is emphatically not the case for part-time learners. Recent Higher Education Funding Council for England data shows that there are 143,000 fewer entrants to part-time undergraduate study in England in 2014-15 than in 2010-11 (a 55% decrease), including a 10% decrease between 2013-14 and 2014-15.
This is an alarming loss of opportunity for individuals to broaden their knowledge and enhance their skills. It is bad news also for employers and the wider economy and society at a time when there are fewer 18- to 21-year-olds entering higher education or the workforce, and when technological innovation and labour market shifts make career change and upskilling a simple fact of life. In their differing ways, the governments in Wales, Scotland and Northern Ireland have sought, within tough financial constraints, to protect part-time higher education. In those nations, there has not been a decline like that in England. A case, perhaps, of policymakers in England needing to look north and west for inspiration and policy solutions.
They should also heed the #LovePartTime campaign organised by the Open University, its students and alumni, and like-minded organisations. The campaign makes the case for part-time higher education being in all our interests and asserts that higher education will never be truly accessible without a buoyant part-time component at its core.
Rob Humphreys
Director, the Open University in Wales
• Re Kate Pickett’s article (The evidence for a fairer system is there – Labour just needs to advertise it, 29 September), I sent my summer-born daughter (single mum, free school meals) to school at four years old – clearly doomed, according to the naysayers. Living in Birmingham, I chose not to enter her for the selective grammar schools and she went to our local comprehensive – my mother was convinced I was sacrificing her education on the altar of my political beliefs. From there she went on to our local college of further education (no sixth form at her comprehensive), coming out with four A-levels, all at grade A, before going on to do a BA, an MA and then her doctorate. Now this “doomed child” is a professor and head of English at a major university.
Yes, the sooner we abolish grammar schools and deny dubious charitable status to private schools the better.
Carole Underwood
Kendal, Cumbria
