Government education policies greatest risk to social mobility, warns UCU ahead of key report

Ahead of the Government's strategy on social mobility and child poverty, the union said decisions to triple university fees and remove key funding, such as the education maintenance allowance (EMA), would reduce the life chances of youngsters from low and average-income backgrounds.

The union said that education is the closest thing we have to a 'silver bullet' when it comes to social mobility, and said more had to be done to make education accessible if the government and Nick Clegg were serious about narrowing the gap between poor and average-income families and the better-off.

Of the 24 universities who have so far announced details of their tuition fees for September 2012, the majority have opted to charge students £9,000 a year or a figure very close - way above the lower limit of £6,000. Previous UCU research showed that higher education institutions would need to charge students at least £7,000 a year just to break even in the context of an 80% cut to the teaching budget.

The abolition of the £570m EMA scheme and its replacement by a fund worth just £180m means that from September, only 12,000 16-year-old school leavers will be guaranteed financial help for further study, while others will be forced to apply to a discretionary fund managed by individual colleges. Under the EMA scheme, 600,000 were guaranteed the EMA weekly payment of up to £30.

UCU general secretary, Sally Hunt, said: "Education is the closest thing we have to a silver bullet when it comes to social mobility, yet since this government took power, we have seen major financial barriers erected in the face of those from low and average-income backgrounds. Nick Clegg has made lots of positive noises about the importance of social mobility, but the actions of the government tell a different story.

'The government's argument that higher university tuition fees should not be a deterrent as they are not payable upfront does not hold water. Bright youngsters will quickly work out they will end up paying off £30,000 or £40,000 of debt for most of their working lives. Understandably, it is the fear of that massive level of debt through the prime of their lives which may deter those from low and middle-income backgrounds from higher education.

'For all the talk of more targeted support for 16-year-old school leavers, the bottom line is that £390m is being cut from financial aid so we still face the prospect of thousands of poorer students being priced out of staying on in education.'