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Vice-Chancellor to Coalition: "Remember the fairness test when it comes to black and minority students"

Tuesday 12 October 2010

Students

UEL head Professor Patrick McGhee has today highlighted the importance of the Government honouring their commitment to apply the fairness test to the outcome of the Browne Review of Higher Education Funding. The review, which has proposed a significant increase in student fees, could disproportionately affect students from black and minority ethnic backgrounds.

Universities like UEL play a vital role in ensuring Britain’s minority communities have better access to opportunities for education and employment.  Professor McGhee warns that whilst universities such as UEL have significantly increased the number of black and minority ethnic students achieving HE qualifications, this work could be undone overnight should tuition fees be increased to £7k or above. Universities would have to raise fees to this level in order to plug some of the funding gap created by the level of cuts being predicted in next week’s Comprehensive Spending Review.

Research undertaken in East London where there are proportionately more poor and poor-black families by Continuum, UEL’s Widening Participation unit shows that whilst aspiration to progress to Higher Education is higher than average (60%) half of young people say that the cost of higher education is already too great. UEL also discovered that young learners from this community had a perception that they faced higher risks in the job market and thus could not guarantee their ability to pay back debts.

Professor McGhee commented "I do not for one moment believe that anyone in the coalition intends to further reduce the life chances of black and minority ethnic communities, but that might well be the unintended consequence of wholesale adoption of a differential fees regime."

Notes to Editors

The University of East London (UEL) is a global learning community with over 28,000 students from over 120 countries world-wide. Our vision is to achieve recognition, both nationally and internationally, as a successful and inclusive regional university proud of its diversity, committed to new modes of learning which focus on students and enhance their employability, and renowned for our contribution to social, cultural and economic development, especially through our research and scholarship. We have a strong track-record in widening participation and working with industry.

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