Tuition fees 'will deter poorer students'

NEARLY three-quarters of potential students claim they might be put off going to university by the Government's decision to introduce tuition fees. The poorest students are the most likely to decide against continuing into higher education.

A survey of more than 500 16- to 18-year-olds and 500 parents carried out for The Independent and the Independent on Sunday also shows that many parents are likely to encourage their children to go to the university nearest their home because of fees.

Twenty-seven per cent of the students said the pounds 1,000-a-year fees, to be introduced from September, and the abolition of maintenance grants would greatly affect the likelihood of their going to university. For those in the lowest social classes the figures rose to 34 per cent and 46 per cent respectively.

Nearly a third of parents said the decision about whether to encourage their children to go to university would be greatly affected while 22 per cent said the fees would affect them slightly.

The poorest parents were more likely than their middle-class counterparts to say that they would discourage their children from going to university.

Tony Higgins, chief executive of the Universities and Colleges Admissions Service, pointed out that applications for university were down by only 2.7 per cent.

"I would prefer to deal in hard evidence rather than opinions expressed by potential students. The facts at the moment are that there has been virtually no fall in applications. Our initial work shows that there has been no change in the profile of applications by social class.

"The big issue still is whether applications will translate into students. These students are talking about not necessarily going on to university. That doesn't necessarily mean they won't apply. There seems to be considerable anecdotal evidence that potential students have not yet read all the guidance sent out by UCAS and the vice-chancellors' committee."

Details of the survey will be published in a special supplement on Thursday, 2 April when The Independent and the Independent on Sunday are organising a conference on tuition fees.