Means‐tested higher education? The English university bursary mess

Mitton, Lavinia

doi:10.1080/03098770701625753

Cited by 7 publications

(5 citation statements)

References 17 publications

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“…The original policy aim of bursaries (see Mitton, 2007;Harrison, Baxter & Hatt, 2007;McCaig & Adnett, 2009) was to mitigate fears that a near-tripling of maximum tuition fees from £1,125 to £3,000 per year in 2006 would discourage prospective students from low income backgrounds from applying to HE, undermining the wider WP programme. There was also a secondary aim to allow a differential 'market' in bursaries to emerge, alongside an expected market in variable tuition fees.…”

Section: Literature Reviewmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…There was also a secondary aim to allow a differential 'market' in bursaries to emerge, alongside an expected market in variable tuition fees. The latter failed to materialise, but with universities being almost entirely free to determine the operating terms for their bursaries, a painfully complex and changeable landscape did emerge, with students able to receive radically different amounts depending on the course and university they chose (Mitton, 2007;Callender, 2010;Harrison & Hatt, 2012). Universities have therefore been able to use bursaries as a competitive marketing tool, as opposed to their primary purpose of widening access.…”

Section: Literature Reviewmentioning

confidence: 99%

See 1 more Smart Citation

Access, participation and capabilities: theorising the contribution of university bursaries to students’ well-being, flourishing and success

Harrison

Davies

Harris

et al. 2018

Cambridge Journal of Education

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For the last ten years, universities in England have been expected to offer financial support to low income students alongside that provided by government. These bursaries were initially conceived in terms of improving access for under-represented groups, but attention has turned to their role in supporting student retention and success. This paper reports two qualitative studies undertaken by contrasting universities that have been brought together due to their complementary findings. Semi-structured interviews were undertaken with a total of 98 students. Students views on bursaries and how they impact on their lives are reported and used to develop a descriptive model of the web of choices that students have in balancing finances and time. This is contextualised within Sen's 'capabilities approach', to argue that providing access to higher education is insufficient if disadvantaged students are not able to flourish by participating fully in the university experience.

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Section: Literature Reviewmentioning

confidence: 99%

Section: Literature Reviewmentioning

confidence: 99%

Access, participation and capabilities: theorising the contribution of university bursaries to students’ well-being, flourishing and success

Harrison

Davies

Harris

et al. 2018

Cambridge Journal of Education

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“…HEIs' desire to target provision at specific student groups has created hundreds of bursary schemes, each with unique eligibility criteria and value. The trade-off between targeting financial help and simplicity produces a support system lacking in transparency and predictability (Mitton, 2007). These are the inevitable consequences of HEIs' freedom to devise their own institutional support.…”

Section: Students' Understanding Of Bursariesmentioning

confidence: 99%

Student Perceptions of the Impact of Bursaries and Institutional Aid on their Higher Education Choices and the Implications for the National Scholarship Programme in England

Callender

Wilkinson

2013

J. Soc. Pol.

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Variable tuition fees and bursaries, funded by higher education institutions, were introduced in England to promote student choice and provider competition, while bursaries would off-set higher fees and safeguard access. Both have been central to government reforms of student funding since 2004. This article assesses student perceptions of the impact of bursaries on their higher education decisions and choices, and considers the implications for the 2012/13 National Scholarship Programme. It concludes that most students do not think their choices are affected by bursaries although those who: are cost-conscious; expect to receive higher bursaries, especially of £1,000 or more; and attend Russell Group universities are more likely to think bursaries are influential and important. The reconfiguration of institutional aid from 2012/13 may overcome some perceived barriers to the effectiveness of financial support, but is likely to exacerbate others, and create new impediments and inequalities. The policy contextThe growing importance of, and demand for, HE; the increasing costs of HE driven by its expansion and rising per-student costs, including student financial support; the inadequacy, to date, of cost-side solutions to solve these problems; and constraints on public expenditure have put considerable pressure on the ability and willingness of governments, both in England and abroad, to meet these costs. The challenge for the Coalition, as it was for the previous Labour administration, is to provide a viable student finance system and, in line with their wider HE policy objectives, to create a system of financial support which also encourages access, enhances student choice, and increases competition among HE providers to establish a more diverse, efficient HE sector. The policy response in England (and elsewhere) has been to reduce HE public expenditure and shift costs from government and taxpayers towards students and/or their parents. Underpinning this 'cost-sharing' agenda (Johnstone and Marcucci, 2010) are the private returns to HE, and gradual transformations in beliefs about HE, its role in society, who benefits, and so who should pay. All major HE student funding reforms in Britain since 1990 have sought to restructure this balance of private and public contributions. A second driver of student funding reform, also ideological, is the quest to create a HE quasimarket. User choice and provider competition were central to Labour's modernisation agenda and their public services reforms, including HE, placed the consumer centre-stage (Vindler and Clarke, 2005;Clarke et al., 2007). These policy technologies (Ball, 2008) steered Labour's HE policies, were crucial to their 2004 Higher Education Act, and are central to the Coalition's reforms. The Labour government's 2004 Higher Education Act, which came into force in 2006, launched variable tuition fees for full-time undergraduate courses capped by government at £3,000. 3 All full-time students were eligible for income-contingent student loans to cover all their tu...

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“…As nearly all did increase their fees, this effectively became a national programme. The statutory requirement was for a minimum bursary of £300 a year, but universities were actively encouraged to allocate a larger proportion of their additional fee income, with the intention to attract applicants from low‐income backgrounds who may otherwise have been deterred by the new higher fees; there was also an intent to create a competitive quasi‐market in bursaries, with universities seeking to distinguish themselves through their bursary offer (Harrison et al ., ; Mitton, ). It is important to note at this point that these bursaries were distinct from the small number of merit‐based scholarships historically offered by many institutions, although the boundaries were sometimes blurred (Callender, ).…”

Section: Case Study: University Bursariesmentioning

confidence: 99%

Examining the epistemology of impact and success of educational interventions using a reflective case study of university bursaries

Harrison

McCaig

2017

British Educational Res J

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This paper engages with the continuing emphasis given to evidence-based policy and 'what works' approaches in educational research, highlighting some of the continuing epistemological challenges from a post-positivist perspective. To illustrate these, it uses the case of bursaries awarded by universities to improve outcomes for students from disadvantaged backgrounds as an example of an education intervention designed to address structural inequality. The paper then discusses critical reflections arising from a project commissioned by the Office for Fair Access in England, which aimed to enable universities to evaluate the impact of the bursaries that they award. These reflections provide a lens to explore the limitations of experimental and quasi-experimental designs in complex social fields. The paper concludes that we lack a strong understanding of the relationship between financial and educational disadvantage prior to and during higher education, and this undermines efforts to 'prove' that certain interventions will 'level the playing field'.The skill in devising 'what works' style projects is thus in meeting these criteria while eliminating as many potential confounding factors as possible, either through Epistemology of impact: university bursaries 291 NOTE 1. This works from the income of the student's parent(s) if they are under 25 or their own household if they are 25 or over (or otherwise deemed to be independent of their parents). A number of algorithmic deductions are then made (e.g. for multiple siblings in higher education) before arriving at the 'residual household income' figure, which is used to determine government financial support and passed to universities (if the student gives permission) to determine bursary eligibility.

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Means‐tested higher education? The English university bursary mess

Cited by 7 publications

References 17 publications

Access, participation and capabilities: theorising the contribution of university bursaries to students’ well-being, flourishing and success

Access, participation and capabilities: theorising the contribution of university bursaries to students’ well-being, flourishing and success

Student Perceptions of the Impact of Bursaries and Institutional Aid on their Higher Education Choices and the Implications for the National Scholarship Programme in England

Examining the epistemology of impact and success of educational interventions using a reflective case study of university bursaries

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