WikiJob Study: Government must prepare to shoulder increasing costs of putting students through university

Posted 4 March 2010 - 3:31pm by WikiJob

WikiJob study finds three quarters of students cannot cover cost of further education themselves, burden on Government finances expected to increase. A recent poll has found that more than three quarters of students in higher education are not funding their education themselves. 43% of the students polled said their primary source of funding for getting through further education was their parents, whilst 34% said they relied on the Government or Local Education Authority to cover their University costs. With more people than ever before applying to further education in light of the recession, this indicates more students from poorer backgrounds will be applying for funding from their local education authorities in order to be able to attend further education. This will potentially put an even greater strain on the countries' finances. WikiJob co-founder Ed Mellett commented on the findings: “I would anticipate The Government will find themselves in an increasingly difficult position when it comes to funding further education. Its their goal to have as many people going to further education from poorer backgrounds as possible, but in the current financial climate can they really afford to pay for more people's education than ever before?” These findings come three months before the final date the general election can take place. Whichever party finds themselves in power after the election, the conundrum of funding further education has shown itself to be an important issue and one that every political party will need a plan for solving. This study was conducted on WikiJob.co.uk during February 2010 with a sample size of 743 people.

WikiJob is one of the UK's largest student and graduate resource websites. If you would like more information about WikiJob, please visit www.wikijob.co.uk or call 0845 625 9454.