Backing for poor university students to pay lower tuition fees

Students from poorer backgrounds should incur lower university fees than those from more affluent families, a charity report has suggested.

A commission set up by the Sutton Trust said there would be public support for fee discounts for undergraduates from low-income families, saying that such students were far outnumbered in universities.

The detailed report on the impact of higher fees found that there remained a large disparity between the number of students from the poorest and the richest parts of England.

Last year 9.5 times more students from wealthy homes went to the most selective universities than those from disadvantaged areas, a drop of 0.3 points over the past four years.

The commision did not suggest how much less poor students should pay below the maximum fee of £9,000 a year, nor who should qualify.

The study cited a poll by Ipsos MORI, funded by the Sutton Trust, which found that 53 per cent of adults in England aged 16-75 supported the idea of students from lower-income families being charged a lower fee.

Read the full article here (£).