In true Tory fashion, our government have scrapped maintenance grants and replaced them with more loans.
Low-income students starting university next September will no longer be able to receive grants to help with their living costs, instead having to pay everything back after their degree.
Before the changes, students from families with less than £25,000 would get a full grant of £3,387 a year.
The National Union of Students said the stingy scrapping of grants was “disgraceful” as poorer students will be left with years and years of debt.
Ex-Chancellor George Osbourne announced the changes in his July 2015 budget, adding that there was a “basic unfairness in asking taxpayers to fund grants for people who are likely to earn a lot more than them”. Okay mate.
NUS vice-president Sorana Vieru told BBC Breakfast: “It’s a disgraceful change that basically punishes
poorer students simply for being poor, so they have to take a bigger loan than those students from privileged backgrounds.
“It could put off students from underprivileged backgrounds from applying, who might not understand how the loan system works, or are very debt-averse.
“We also know that mature students are way more debt-averse than younger students and BME [black and minority ethnic] students perceive student debt on a par with commercial debt.”