Student debt hitting poorest

7.00.00pm UTC (GMT +0000) Thu 17th Aug 2006

Students marched in protest against top-up fees in 2003

As students around the country receive their A Level results today, many will be deterred from continuing their education due to mounting debts topping an average of £13,252 for students graduating in 2006. The figures were revealed in the 2006 NatWest Student Money Matters survey on levels of student debt.

Reacting to the report, Andrew Simpson said: "87% of students are now taking part time jobs, meaning they have less time to study.

"While debt has risen across the board, poorer students' debt has risen by 2 and a half times - 43% higher than for children of wealthier families.

Northampton Liberal Democrat Youth & Student Group Secretary, Portia Wilson said: "As a recent graduate myself I'm painfully aware of how expensive it is becoming to go to university.

"Some of my friends actually had 2 part time jobs to try and keep afloat which meant they couldn't study as much as others, and their grades suffered."

"The Lib Dems have pledged to abolish fees which is desperately needed to tackle the decline in social mobility."

Andrew Simpson added: "Labour's function used to be to reduce inequality, but under this government inequality has actually grown:

• The number of state-school educated children going to university has fallen to its lowest level in 3 years.

• Children from the richest 20% of families are about 5 times more likely to acquire a degree by age 23 than children from the poorest 20%, up from about 3 times in the early 1980s.

• In 1999, 46% of children whose parental incomes were in the highest 20% of incomes acquired a degree by age 23 (up from 20% in 1981), compared with just 9% of children in the lowest 20%."

Speaking earlier in the year about the potential effects of introducing top-up fees, Liberal Democrat Shadow Education Secretary, Sarah Teather MP said:

"Education is the key to social mobility, which is why it's especially important that young people whose parents didn't go to university aspire to earn a degree. But the government is letting down exactly these pupils."

To find out more about the Lib Dem policy to scrap tuition fees go to: http://www.libdems.org.uk/index_education.html