Help low-income students or lose the right to charge fees

Universities should be stripped of the right to charge £9,000 fees if they fail to admit poorer students and help them to get a job when they leave, the Government's social mobility tsar has warned.

Alan Milburn  called on ministers to toughen up rules which allow universities to hike their charges to include stricter guidelines on how many low-income students they admit, how many drop out and what their outcomes are. 

The Government should also introduce social mobility league tables to shine a light on how institutions are performing, Mr Milburn said, as he warned that only one child in seven in the bottom 40 per cent of families go to university. 

Speaking in central London Mr Milburn, who is the chair of the Social Mobility Commission, said: "At current rates of progress it would take over 50 years before the gap in access to university is closed between the areas with the lowest and highest participation rates.

"Poor performers in widening participation should be challenged to raise their game. Charging £9,000 fees should be subject to universities reaching a higher bar in access, retention and progression for low-income students than they do currently."

Social mobility is at the heart of Theresa May's plan for Government and she has pledged to do more to increase the life chances of those at the bottom and help families that are just about managing. Ministers are understood to be considering Mr Milburn's recommendations.

The Government believes its new Teaching Excellence Framework will create "clear, reputational and financial incentives for universities to raise teaching standards and focus on helping students from all backgrounds into employment or further study" but Mr Milburn said it must go further.

He added: "A new social mobility league table should be published annually to highlight which universities are doing most and which least to widen access, improve retention and ensure good careers for their students.

"A set of floor standards could raise this bar, linking higher fees to data on outcomes for young people from low-income and low-participation backgrounds."

Universities are allowed to increase their fees in line with inflation as long as they satisfy access requirements for poorer students, but the rules for recording how well students do and how many drop out are less clear. 

A spokesman for the Department for Education said: "Young people from disadvantaged backgrounds are more likely to go to university than ever before and all universities must already sign up to agreements committing to support low income students if they wish to charge fees over £6,000 a year.

“But we agree there is more to be done and through our higher education reforms we are going further than ever before. 

"This includes requiring universities to look beyond just access – and focus on attainment, retention rates and readiness for the world of work and legislating for a new transparency duty which will see universities publish application, offer and acceptance rates for students broken down by background, to shine a spotlight on where more must be done to tackle inequality. 

"Our new Teaching Excellence Framework will also explicitly look at how universities are achieving positive outcomes for disadvantaged students.”