Why the maintenance loan is a good thing

There, I said it


Everyone on the internet is mouthing off about the budget, where maintenance grants were scrapped and replaced with an increased maintenance loan. Driving the cost of uni up to £17,000 in debt a year is a great way to make people angry – it’s just classic George Osborne.

Now, students from poorer economic backgrounds will have to pay off all their living costs along with tuition fees. They say it will discourage less-well-off students from considering uni, worsen the debt of half a million students drastically, and ensure more students stay in debt until it’s finally written off.

So is this yet another policy where the thieving scum of the Tory party are money-grabbing from the poor in a spout of anti-Robin Hood class inequality? Or might it actually all be part of a sensible and effective change to higher education in the UK?

Let’s consider the effects of the change for a moment: prospective students will still have access to the same amount of money and the same bursaries, and they will start repaying their loans at the same salary. So there’s no need for this to discourage any sixth formers who actually want to go to uni. It’s a level playing field.

If it pushes some prospective students away from university, that’s not a problem. They will be drawn towards the ever-growing apprenticeship schemes that are being financially supported more and more by the new government. We have to accept that uni isn’t for everyone anyway – and increasing the costs will help people to realise that.

The rise to £9,000 tuition fees didn’t stop us lot, so this could be the next best way for the government to force people to consider all their options.

Too many people go to uni because all their friends do, and end up hating it. Deep down you know your little brother never really wanted to study international business with Spanish at Manchester Met and will end up having to resit his one end of year exam. He’s just way too busy having fun. These are the people that should have gone straight into work – if they did, they would have benefitted hugely from good apprenticeship schemes.

The change isn’t a way of closing the university shaped door in the face of the poor, but is more likely to encourage teenagers to really consider if university is where they want to be.

Mr Osborne might be on to something for once.