Many governments have adopted a policy of seeking to increase the number of students entering higher education and to finance this expansion by transferring costs from the state to the individual. In the United Kingdom, this policy has been pursued with relatively little concern for the impact that the increasing financial burden may have on students.Research at one case-study university suggested that many students were coping with their day-to-day living costs more comfortably than they had expected to in the first year. However, those in a difficult financial position at the start of their period of study were likely to face greater problems in the course of their first year. Two difficulties in particularhaving missed payments at the start of the academic programme, and having to wait for the first student loan payment -were shown to have a damaging effect on academic performance.

A case study demonstrates some of the causes of widespread housing difficulties among former prisoners, such as a lack of appropriate advice in prisons and a failure to coordinate the work of the prison and probation services. While the government has taken action to tackle these problems, a more fundamental difficulty is that social landlords may be unwilling to meet housing needs because they perceive that offenders pose a threat to community safety. Changing this perception is essential to prevent conflict between the government's housing and resettlement policies and to ensure that the needs of former prisoners are met.

Successive governments have encouraged the view of users of public services as consumers, choosing between different providers on the basis of information about the quality of service. As part of this approach, prospective students are expected to make their decisions about which universities to apply to with reference to the consumer evaluations provided by the National Student Survey. However, a case study of a post-1992 university showed that not all students made genuine choices and those who did tended to be in stronger social and economic positions. Where choices were made, they were infrequently based on external evaluations of quality.

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