Reintroducing maintenance grants should form part of a wider “new deal” for working-class students, experts have urged, amid fears they will not be enough in themselves to move the dial on university access.

The low value of the new grants was greeted with disappointment across the sector when they were announced last week, with a maximum of £1,000 available per year and low household income thresholds of £25,000 being maintained. Grants will also only be available to students on courses that align with the government’s industrial strategy.

Ministers have hinted the scheme should be seen as a “starting point”, with more support to come. The £5 million budgeted for the grants by the Treasury in last week’s budget only accounts for a small proportion of the revenue expected to be raised by the international student fee levy, which is being used to pay for them.

Speaking in front of the education select committee on 2 December, education secretary Bridget Phillipson said the move was important as it “reintroduced the principle of maintenance grant support”.

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Graeme Atherton, associate pro vice-chancellor for regional engagement at the University of West London and vice-principal of Ruskin College, said the reintroduction of grants was “welcome”.

But he said that a plan to reduce the grants to £750 after students’ second year was a “limitation” and “won’t be helpful in terms of communicating the opportunities that higher education offers to students from lower-income backgrounds”.

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Atherton said he hoped that the grants “could act as a lever or catalyst for a more holistic student support package for lower-income students that included other aspects”.

“For instance, more significant travel support for those commuting, or subsidies for accommodation for those in residence, or free data for students for use on their mobile phones while studying.

“I think that we need to recognise that £1,000 is a small amount, but see what that can be a springboard for, [and] see it as a kind of ‘new deal’ for working-class students.”

Before grants were scrapped by the Conservative government in 2016, students with a household income of below £25,000 received £3,387 a year.

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Omar Khan, chief executive of Transforming Access and Student Outcomes (TASO), told ̽����Ƶ that cost of living concerns mean that while better-off students are “able to focus on the learning and social experience of higher education”, lower-income students will “have to work increasingly long hours just to make ends meet”.

“The government’s decision to reintroduce maintenance grants is good news, although the amount on offer won’t be enough to close the gaps in the student experience and ultimately degree and labour market outcomes,” Khan said.

Increasing the maintenance grant should be a “top priority for ensuring equality of opportunity for all students and boosting economic growth”, he added.

Billy Huband Thompson, head of research and policy at the Sutton Trust, echoed that the grants were “an important step”, but said students from disadvantaged backgrounds “should be able to make choices about their studies based on their interests and aspirations, rather than on affordability”. 

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“In future, we hope to see an extension of maintenance grants to all students from low-income backgrounds,” he said.

juliette.rowsell@timeshighereducation.com