New IFS research finds that a blanket minimum eligibility
requirement (MER) for access to student loans would be a highly
imperfect way of improving student outcomes. It would increase
the already large socio-economic gaps in higher education and
would disproportionally affect ethnic minority students.
The government recently announced a consultation on changes to
the higher education system, including on the introduction of
minimum eligibility requirements where students would need a
minimum of a grade 4/C in English and maths GCSE, or two E grades
at A level to be able to access student loans. The specified
purpose of this policy is to ensure that ‘students undertaking
degree study have attained the baseline skills required to engage
with and benefit from the course’.
The research, submitted to the consultation, assesses who would
be affected by the introduction of these MERs, and how effective
they would be at reducing the number of students with poor
outcomes and on ‘low-value’ courses. It focuses on individuals
from the 2011 and 2012 GCSE cohorts who started a full-time
undergraduate degree at age 18 or 19 to measure the likely impact
of these proposed changes.
Key findings from the research include:
- For the 2011 and 2012 GCSEs cohorts, almost one in four
undergraduates who were eligible for free school meals (FSMs) at
age 16 would not have been able to access student loans had a
GCSE English and maths requirement been in place. That compares
with 9% of non-FSM state school students and only 5% of private
school students.
- An English and maths GCSE requirement would have had a much
bigger impact on participation by black, Bangladeshi and
Pakistani students than on white British students. Around 7% of
white British undergraduates from state schools would have been
impacted by the GCSE English and maths requirement, and around
10% of Chinese and Indian students. In contrast, nearly one in
five (18%) Bangladeshi and Pakistani students would have been
affected, and nearly one in four (23%) black undergraduates. This
reflects the fact that ethnic minority pupils from these groups
have much higher university attendance rates than their white
counterparts despite similar age 16 attainment.
- The impact on socio-economic gaps in access to higher
education would be much smaller if, instead of passes in English
and maths GCSE, individuals are required to have at least two Es
at A level (or equivalent) to be eligible for student loans. FSM
and certain ethnic minority groups would still be
disproportionately affected relative to other groups of
undergraduates, but far fewer students would be affected overall.
For instance, only 5% of current FSM undergraduates would have
been affected by the two Es requirement compared with 23% under a
requirement of a pass in English and maths GCSE.
- Students who did not achieve these minimum qualifications
have worse degree outcomes than their peers with higher
attainment, but close to 80% still graduate and around 40% do so
with a First or Upper Second class degree.
- The GCSE requirement would have excluded more than one in
five 18- and 19-year-old entrants to social work courses and 9%
of 18- and 19-year-old entrants to education courses from
obtaining student loans. These are subjects where there are low
returns in terms of earnings, but which have high social value.
Laura van der Erve, Senior Research Economist at IFS and
an author of the research, said: ‘A blanket minimum
eligibility requirement would disproportionately impact students
who haven’t had the same opportunities and support to meet the
attainment threshold and would result in a widening of
socio-economic gaps in access to university. Providing additional
support to ensure all students leave school with basic levels of
literacy and numeracy would be a better way to make sure all
pupils, including those who go on to attend university, have the
skills needed to succeed. This would be particularly valuable in
the context of England’s internationally low levels of basic
skills.’
Elaine Drayton, Research Economist at IFS and an author
of the research, said: ‘Requiring students to pass GCSE
maths and English in order to be eligible for student loans would
be a blunt tool for targeting undergraduate provision with poor
employment prospects. While it would remove access to student
loans for entrants on low-earnings courses like creative arts and
communications, it would heavily impact some subjects with strong
earnings returns such as business and computer science, with 13%
and 17% of age 18–19 entrants affected, respectively. Other
courses with low returns but considerable social value would also
be impacted, including social work and education.’
ENDS
Notes to Editors
-
The impact of student loan minimum eligibility
requirements is an IFS briefing by Elaine Drayton and
Laura van der Erve and is embargoed until 0001 Wednesday 27th
April
- The government consultation can be found at: https://www.gov.uk/government/consultations/higher-education-policy-statement-and-reform.
- This work uses data from the National Pupil Database,
focusing on individuals from the 2011 and 2012 GCSE cohorts.
- This work was produced using statistical data from the Office
for National Statistics. The use of the ONS statistical data in
this work does not imply the endorsement of the ONS in relation
to the interpretation or analysis of the statistical data. This
work uses research datasets which may not exactly reproduce
National Statistics aggregates.
