The government is considering allowing universities to cut their work to help poorer pupils get into higher education as part of plans to slash tuition fees, it has been reported.
Theresa May is expected to use a speech on Monday to announce details of the government’s review of university funding.
Options include cutting annual tuition fees, which are currently set at a maximum of £9,250 a year, to £6,000.
The Guardian said that the proposal would see the government “dismantle” requirements that universities spend money on activities on encouraging poorer pupils to apply to university and bursaries for those from poorer backgrounds.
At last year’s Conservative Party conference, the prime minister pledged “a major review of university funding and student financing”.
However, there were reports that Justine Greening and Jo Johnson - then education secretary and universities minister respectively - were opposed to Ms May’s proposals. Both ministers left the Department for Education in last month’s reshuffle.
Tweeting about today’s reports, Sam Freedman, a former adviser for Michael Gove at the DfE, said: “This is literally the worst thing you could do on tuition fees. Straight transfer from poor to rich.”
Mr Freedman, who is now executive director of Teach First, later added: “I can’t believe that will end up being the proposal. If it is then everyone will mobilise against it!”
Weeks after leaving government, Ms Greening called for a more “progressive” system to cover living costs for university students than maintenance loans, which replaced grants.
She told BBC Radio 4’s Today programme: “That means, I think wrongly, to be perfectly frank, that young people from more disadvantaged poorer backgrounds are coming out like for like on the same course with more debt than their better-off peers.”
The former education secretary said she had been against a review of student finance because “the danger of a review is that you just kick things into the long grass”.
There have already been fears that the government could use school funding to pay for any cut in university tuition fees.
One source told Tes: “It’s very, very possible that a decent chunk of this will have to be found within DfE’s own budget.”
A DfE spokesperson said: “We will be conducting a major review of funding across tertiary education to ensure a joined-up system that works for everyone. Further detail will be set out shortly.”
