EUSA President fears it is becoming harder for low income students to come to university

Jonny Ross Tatam called for greater bursary support following the Governments decision to scrap maintenance grants.

Speaking to the Tab yesterday EUSA President Tatam said the Student Association must “push for expanded bursary support from the University” as well as more grants from the Scottish and UK Governments.

“A university education must be affordable for all students with the potential, regardless of their background.”

The student-elected President, called for these extended provisions of economic support following the recent Government decision to scrap maintenance grants.

“It will make it harder for students from lower income backgrounds to come to university, which I think is bad for our economy and society”.

George Osborne decided earlier this year to end student maintenance grants saying they had become “unaffordable”. His argument was that it was a “basic unfairness” to ask taxpayers to fund grants for “people likely to earn a lot more than them”.

Tatam spoke to the Tab following the Guardian’s new university league table rankings which claimed that 31.5% of Edinburgh students were privately-educated.

The Guardian’s league table also placed Edinburgh dead last for student satisfaction.

Responding to this Tatam said that while the Student Association has been pushing for “better teaching”, “more diversified assessment” and “personalised feedback” there is “clearly still a lot more work for the university to do.”