Increasing numbers of students excluded over fees non-payment

Thousands of students are being excluded from universities because they are unable to pay tuition fees, a university vice-chancellor said yesterday.

Peter Knight, vice-chancellor of the University of Central England in Birmingham, told a conference of university heads that they faced a serious problem of student debt, with increasing numbers of students dropping out of courses at universities.

"I estimate that several thousand students are not completing courses because they can't pay fees," he said. Dr Knight added that the loss of maintenance grants for living costs was the biggest factor leading to increasing student dropout rates. Many students were using loans to pay fees when they were intended for food and rent.

The clearest sign yet of the deepening levels of debt faced by students was a 15% drop in the revenue from university student bars at UCE over the last year, Dr Knight said. He said that a total of 197 students had been excluded from UCE last year.

The comments came at the annual meeting of the higher education funding council for England, the government body which allocates teaching and research grants to universities.

Dr Knight is the second university head in a week to warn that student debt has risen sharply since the government introduced fees and scrapped maintenance grants three years ago.

Diana Green, vice-chancellor of Sheffield Hallam University, told MPs on the House of Commons education committee that the number of students dropping out of university because of debt is increasing every year.

A report for university heads last July estimated that £21m in fee payments from students was outstanding. Students graduating last year were the first to be charged the £1,050 annual fee for their degree courses.

Dr Knight said that universities were witnessing a new underclass of students "who didn't know where the next meal was coming from". He said that some students now face "grinding poverty". Students from households with an annual income of between £15,000 and £30,000 were struggling the most, according to Dr Knight. These students have to pay contributions to fees, but also find it hard to get any extra money from parents to help them through their university careers.