Grants down, applicants up in Britain

THE credit crisis has hit Britain hard. Prime Minister Gordon Brown has spent billions of pounds on propping up banks and expended a great deal of energy on encouraging other governments to follow suit. And in recent days the pound has been bouncing up and down like a yoyo.

THE credit crisis has hit Britain hard. Prime Minister Gordon Brown has spent billions of pounds on propping up banks and expended a great deal of energy on encouraging other governments to follow suit. And in recent days the pound has been bouncing up and down like a yoyo.

House prices are tumbling and banks are barely lending. Any pretence that the general populace can avoid the economic pain has been jettisoned.

Let the hard times begin.

An increase in taxes is a serious proposition. And while the Government has made it clear that hospital budgets will not be touched, the nation's universities and prospective students have not been so lucky.

Middle England will be asked to make sacrifices. This means families will have to pay more for their children to attend university. The British university system is still highly subsidised, but last week the Government revealed it would cut the number of grants to middle-income earners, a move that will add to the financial woes of many families amid high inflation. There will be less money for maintenance grants that cover living expenses for students from families with an income of between pound stg. 25,000 and pound stg. 50,000 who begin their studies next year. Students from pound stg. 50,000-a-year families, for example, will receive only pound stg. 50, one-tenth of this year's grant of pound stg. 538.

The Department for Innovation, Universities and Skills says the reduction is necessary to help fund the growing number of students from poorer backgrounds who want to go to university or college. Students from families with an annual income up to pound stg. 25,000 will receive a grant of pound stg. 2906.

The department has decided to compensate better-off families by increasing the amount students can borrow at a special cheap rate. Students from families earning pound stg. 50,000 a year will be able to take out pound stg. 4925, compared with pound stg. 4207 this year.

Surprisingly, the decision has generated little debate in the media, with most reports sticking to the salient facts. Not even the National Union of Students is calling for heads to roll.

Giving the disadvantaged a fair go is a rallying cry no politics-savvy student can afford to ignore.

Besides, student politicians know that money is tight and there will be bigger battles to fight next year when tuition fees come up for their first review.

As one vice-chancellor tells the HES, academics understand that the average voter is not particularly interested in higher education, no matter how shortsighted that lack of interest may be.

"Our work plays a vital role in preparing the next generation of doctors, nurses, teachers, engineers and scientists, but that only matters when there's not enough of them about," he says.

"But people either don't realise that or they choose to ignore it. Politicians sometimes take advantage of that, too. It's especially difficult now. There simply isn't enough money and we're preparing ourselves for the worst.

"Cutting maintenance grants is just the tip of the iceberg.

"I'm pretty sure we're in for a couple of years of what politicians like to refer to as belt tightening."

Brown and his colleagues may take heart, however, from a new set of figures showing that overseas students are still prepared to spend tens of thousands of pounds on expensive degree courses such as medicine, dentistry and veterinary science in the nation's elite universities. According to UCAS, the body responsible for managing applications to higher education institutions, the first set of data on full-time courses that start in 2009 suggests the number of applicants is up overall by 6.5 per cent.

The number of applicants from outside Britain is up 11.1 per cent, with Singapore (24.5 per cent) and Belgium (25.5 per cent) showing the highest increases. The number of prospective students from Pakistan is up by 16.2 per cent, India by 7.7 per cent and China by 3.2 per cent. Applicants from Hong Kong have dropped by 2.2 per cent.

According to UCAS chief executive Anthony McClaren, "This early indication of continued growth in the number of applications is very encouraging.

"Despite global economic uncertainty, demand for undergraduate courses in the UK is, at this stage of the cycle, demonstrably strong."

The snapshot, taken early in the cycle of university and college applications, coincides with the October deadline for people hoping to study medicine, dentistry, veterinary medicine and veterinary science courses, and those applying to study at Oxford and Cambridge.

The Cambridge website shows three categories of annual tuition fees for overseas students: pound stg. 9747, pound stg. 12,768 and pound stg. 23,631, the last being for clinical training. On top of tuition fees, most overseas students would have to pay a college fee of pound stg. 3300 to pound stg. 4400 a year and require pound stg. 6000 to pound stg. 7500 for living expenses, the website says.

The number of Australians hoping to obtain a place at Oxford or Cambridge has also been rising, albeit slowly. Between 2003 and 2007 -- the most recent year for which final figures are available -- the number of applicants rose from 188 to 264, and the number of acceptances grew from 75 to 102.