Does it ever pay to be poor?
Student finance: two words that send a shiver through anyone who has had to go through the gruelling process of trying to get enough money to see them through university.
Living in London is expensive – from rising travel costs to extortionate rental prices, coming to study here can sometimes feel like you’re throwing money down the drain.
Our bank balance is something we worry about, something we talk about and, for the majority of us, it’s usually very low.
Until 1997, if you wanted to go to university you could apply for a student grant.
This was nominally the same amount for every student, but those with richer parents received smaller amounts and so had to be helped by their parents.
However, in all cases none of the grants had to be repaid.
Family business
Since then, the system has changed and students are awarded loans, grants and bursaries, the amounts of which are dependent on your household income.
This is known as ‘means assessment’. The problem with means-tested funding is that it presumes that if your parents have money, so do you.
How much someone’s parents or guardians earn says nothing about an individual’s family situation, and nothing about the relationship students have with their family.
For example, are their parents actually intending to fund their degree?
There is also no information taken on how much debt the family might have or their financial commitments.
This can leave some students who are presumed to be ‘well off’ struggling just as much as those thought of as ‘poor’ and many of these are asking whether it actually pays to be poor, especially if plans go ahead to raise tuition fees.
Rising fees
In June 2009, Lord Mandelson revealed that fees, which are currently capped at £3,225 per year, could potentially be raised to a staggering £7,000 by 2013.
Where does this leave people currently outside of the bracket for funding?
This controversial decision could see students from all walks of life leaving university with a debt of up to £32,400.
If the proposed changes go ahead then it will mean that the poorer you are deemed to be, the more you can borrow and the less you will have to pay back.
Sarah Manley, a 24-year-old photography student from London College of Fashion shares her thoughts on financial issues, telling Arts London News about her personal experiences of getting through university: “My finance is calculated on my mum’s earnings. Although she has a ‘highly paid job’, she is in a lot of debt after my parents’ divorce and also has my brother and sister to think about so she can’t afford to support me.”
She continues: “Because of her high wages, the amount of money available for me to borrow is limited and I have had to take out a credit card, which at this young age is pretty scary. I think it would be good if there was a system where anybody could borrow the highest maintenance amount. I wouldn’t mind paying more back later if it made getting through university less of a struggle”.
Student finance has been widely debated and while nothing is set in stone both Labour and the Tories have signalled that there will be, in the not so-distant future, a rise in fees which could leave even those considered to be privileged struggling to keep their heads above water.
For more information on the type of finance that is available to you, together with useful tips on saving and budgeting as a student, check out www.arts.ac.uk/finance.
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