Report finds funding cut would damage disadvantaged young people

The report, The Uses and Impact of HEFCE Funding for Widening Participation, emphasises any reduction in the funding given to universities for work encouraging disadvantaged people into higher education, would hit those institutions that recruit the most disadvantaged young people, hardest. They are typically teaching-intensive universities and smaller institutions, including further education colleges that offer degree courses.

The report, made up of survey responses from 104 institutions, singles out outreach work with schools as extremely vulnerable in the event of a cut to widening participation funding. It also found a significant amount of other work to encourage disadvantaged young people into universities would be reduced or stopped altogether.

In its campaign, Knowledge Economy - Investing in Opportunity, UCU has highlighted the breadth of benefits of post-16 education to both the individual and society including:

• students aged 19+ in further education generate an additional £75 billion for the economy over their lifetimes*
• large advantages continue to accrue to both individuals and the public from higher levels of education. The earnings premium from tertiary education is large and has grown further over recent years. Tertiary graduates also generate an extra £55 000 by paying higher income tax and social contributions - far outweighing the public cost of their education^
• social mobility declined in the last quarter of the twentieth century: children born in 1970 improved their position relative to that of their parents less than did those born in 1958. Social mobility has not risen for those born between 1970 and 2000†

UCU general secretary, Sally Hunt, said: 'This report shows that universities rely on this money to carry out some excellent work on social mobility. Without it, initiatives that have the potential to change lives like going into schools to connect with young people face-to- face, will be axed.

'Through our campaign, Knowledge Economy - Investing in Opportunity, we are illustrating the value of education and nowhere is this more stark than its ability to widen participation. Politicians must wake up to the importance of education to the creation of a thriving economy and fair society.'

* AoC, (2011), College Key Facts
^ OECD, (2012), Education at a Glance: OECD indicators 2012, United Kingdom country note, (.pdf)
† Blanden, J. and Machin, S. (2007), Recent Changes in Intergenerational Mobility in Britain, Sutton Trust (.pdf)