The government’s higher education bill, trailed as the centrepiece of the pre-Brexit government’s legislative programme for 2016-2017, is a flawed piece of work. It undermines universities’ independence, expands the transactional relationship between them and their students, and introduces for the first time profit-making independent universities. All of these innovations threaten Britain’s global reputation for excellence in higher education. But in among the ideologically driven plans there is one welcome proposal. In the name of improving social mobility, there will be more monitoring of students’ socio-economic background. At the moment, a student from an advantaged background is still six times more likely to go to a top university than a student from a disadvantaged one; the latter is more likely to drop out, and less likely to get a good job. Understanding in greater detail which students are applying from which disadvantaged group, and whereabouts in the country they live, should make recruitment more socially just. Maintenance and tuition loans will also be extended to mature and part-time students. Given the ambition of these changes, it is all the more disappointing that maintenance grants for the poorest students have been abolished from this year. That may put disadvantaged students off faster than universities can recruit them.
