LibLink: Tim Farron – In 2010, we promised to deliver the Pupil Premium. In 2015, I want us to promise to deliver the Student Premium

by danielbarker on 22 April, 2014

Posted April 22, 2014

Published on Liberal Democrat Voice By NewsHound

Lib Dem party president Tim Farron has given his personal backing to the Lib Dems promising a Student Premium – modelled on the well-received Pupil Premium – at the next election. First proposed by his colleague Stephen Williams, Tim writes the Student Premium “could potentially change the game in terms of student uptake, especially from disadvantaged backgrounds”. Here’s an excerpt of his article for the April issue of the magazine, Politics First:

The Pupil Premium is being delivered only because the Liberal Democrats are in government – and it continues to be one of the biggest successes of this coalition government. The Pupil Premium was our party’s second highest priority policy (after our pledge to increase the income tax threshold), with £2.5 billion of new money specifically ear-marked to help support the most disadvantage children in school. … Now what has that got to do with Higher Education, I hear you ask?

Well, I would like to extend the scheme to Higher Education. Currently, we help and support young people through the pupil premium, catch up classes and even specialist tuition – but then at 18, if they go onto University, we leave them to the institution and hope as part of the access agreement, they will be eligible for support. HEFCE (higher funding education council for England) provides up to £150 million to help disadvantaged young people, but often students do not know the size of the grant they will receive until they arrive at university.

I want to change that – I want to extend the pupil premium to Higher Education. I believe that that will help
create a student pathway and give certainty to pupils and parents/carers that their son or daughter can afford
Higher Education. I think that could potentially change the game in terms of student uptake, especially from
disadvantaged backgrounds.

A student premium would be designed to guarantee financial help for all children on free school meals entering
higher education. I have seen reports that it could be worth around £2,500 per pupil, per year. That could make a massive difference to young people. I would also like funding and support packages to be offered – this way young
people and their families would have certainty and would not have to fill in form after form and then be offered
nothing at the end of it.

Before I became an MP, I worked in HE. I saw its value at first hand and how it can change the lives, not only of
young people, but women and men of all ages and backgrounds. I saw how the experience allows people to grow
and develop. A student premium will help more people to take advantage of that experience. Other MPs have seen
that opportunity, too – my colleague Stephen Williams MP first floated the idea in a pamphlet by Liberal Reform
called “Coalition and Beyond: Liberal Reforms for the Decade Ahead”. …

Education is critical to our hopes of a fairer society. I hope, just as the pupil premium was front and centre of
our 2010 manifesto, that the student premium will be prominently displayed come 2015.

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