The university system is unfair on the working class, this is why

Image source - chantal

This article was originally published on Feb 24, 2025.

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People from disadvantaged backgrounds are struggling to go to university and the current student loan system in England is one of the reasons why preventing them from having the full ‘university experience’.

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With the increase in tuition fees introduced by the current Labour government led by Keir Starmer to £9,535 in September of this year, I believe this topic is very relevant, especially considering his prior commitment to abolish tuition fees entirely. During the campaign, Starmer spoke at length at how he was from a working-class background, and how a university education allowed him to have the success that he has, with himself calling the current system unfair, let’s look at just how unfair the system he has decided to support, at least in the short term, really is.

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To put it plainly, the current system is unfair. A report from the Sutton Trust last year revealed that the English maintenance loan system is putting working class students off of going to university, the National Union of Students summarised the report highlighting just how unfair the system is.

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These are the most shocking points from that report:

• Firstly, at the time of the report (March 2024) they highlighted that the maximum maintenance loan was £9,978 per year, but the average student who is classed as working class spends £11,400 a year just on essentials.
• Next, for this current academic year students will be £2,000 worse off than if maintenance loans had been going up with inflation since 2021/22.
• 33% of students from working class families have skipped meals in order to save money.
• What highlights just how unfair the current system is most of all, is that the poorest of students could graduate with £60,100 of debt, whilst those from more affluent and wealthier backgrounds can graduate with £43,600 of debt. That means, that students from working class backgrounds can leave university with 38% more debt than those from wealthy backgrounds.

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A system that makes its poorest students 38% more in debt is not a system that can be considered fair in any sense of the word, and a university education cannot be considered as having universal access if a large proportion of the population feel it is not financially possible for them, something other students will not have to consider at all.

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Not only is the financial side of university unfair, but the acceptance rates of state educated students to the best universities in the country is a clear indication that the divide is much more deeply rooted in the education system as a whole. Before diving into the statistics, the one that needs to be highlighted first is that roughly 90% of university students are state educated.

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Despite this, the top universities in England are very disproportionality accepting working class students. Data from the 2016/17 academic year released by University College London themselves showed that just 67.6% of their students came from state educated backgrounds. This is a trend that is followed by Oxford and Cambridge, with just over 57% of Oxford students being state educated and only a slightly higher amount of 62.5% for the University of Cambridge. On top of this, Russell Group universities as a whole have seen a drop in the amount of state educated students being accepted, with 8 of the 24 Russell Group institutions reporting a drop between the 19/20 and 20/21 academic years.

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It is not just coincidence that as tuition fees rise, the cost of living rises, the price of renting student accommodation and houses rises, the number of Oxford and Cambridge students who are state educated remains very disproportionate, the number of Russell Group university students who are state educated are declining.

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On top of all of this, those working-class students who do manage to make it to university at all, do not get to enjoy the ‘university experience’. University is seen as a time to leave home, grow up and live independently, however, this is not the case for working class students. According to the Centre for Longitudinal Studies, 31% of students who are from families who have used a food bank in the past year plan on staying at home for university, compared to 19% of students from families who have not had to.

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This means, that not only will the poorest students leave university with 38% more debt than students from wealthier backgrounds but will in fact not get to enjoy the same experiences, meaning they will owe more money to an education and experience that they get less out of than their peers.

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There is no easy solution to this that does not involve starting from the very beginning of people’s education. The simple statistical fact is that if you go to a state school, as well as being from a disadvantaged background, you are less likely to go to university at all. However, if you do manage to get as far as university, you are much less likely to get into one of the top institutions, as well as acquiring a lot more debt along the way. A good start to fixing this problem would be by levelling up the quality of state education in order to level the playing field, knowledge and education should be available to anyone that wants it, and no one should have a chance of accessing a higher quality education purely because they can afford it, otherwise the social class divides will remain forever. On top of this, the student loan system as examined earlier is completely unfair straight to the core, and more needs to be done by those in power to change this. Keir Starmer has promised major reform in the coming years to the current system, but promises can only go so far, serious legislation and reform is needed if they want to avoid a system that continues to divide people along class lines, making those from working class backgrounds feel inferior to others.

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And that is why the university system is unfair on the working class.