Summer Budget: Student loans replace maintenance grants

Maintenance grants for poorer students are to be scrapped and replaced with loans, under George Osborne’s scheme to bring greater “fairness” to the higher education funding system.

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Sir Peter Lampl, chairman of the Sutton Trust, a social mobility charity, warned that the reforms could deter low and middle-income students from applying to university.

“Since grants were reintroduced, there have been significant improvements in participation from full-time less advantaged students, and this will be put at risk by today’s Budget plans,” Sir Peter said. “The reality is that the government has miscalculated the levels of repayments it will get from its student loans under the new fees system. Rather than penalising poorer students, it should have a fundamental review of the repayments system. We need long-term solutions not a short-term fix.”

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