Banking on it

Universities should use their excellent credit ratings to borrow cheaply on behalf of postgraduates, says Paul Wakeling.

If universities want to secure more funding for taught postgraduate students, it looks as though they will have to do it themselves. There seems little prospect for the extension of undergraduate student fees and maintenance loans to UK postgraduates in the current parliament. Carefully considered schemes for postgraduate loans have been put forward over the past year by Tim Leunig of CentreForum and by the National Union of Students, with others including the Sutton Trust, backing the general idea.

These have, however, been flat-batted back by David Willetts, the universities and science minister, who would no doubt struggle to secure any sort of Treasury support for the plans even if he were a wild enthusiast. Instead, he recently called on the banks to increase their lending to postgraduates, in response to low acceptance rates for Career Development Loan applications and the withdrawal of all but two banks from the scheme. It seems there is a market failure in postgraduate funding.