Shadow Higher Education Minister Gordon Marsden, commenting on today’s HEPI Student Academic Experience Survey, said: 

“The results show alarming decline in satisfaction from students - down from 53 per cent in 2012 to 37 per cent now. It couples with increasing resistance to further fee increases linked to teaching quality, with 86% of students thinking ‘it’s not a good idea.’

“It’s a really significant thumbs down for the Government’s decision to treble tuition fees in 2012. It’s significant because this is the first time the survey has covered the full cohort of students all now paying those tripled fees. This survey comes straight after the recent Sutton Trust Report on how high the debt levels of UK Students are compared with other countries. This Tory Government has been far too complacent and self-congratulatory about their supposed ‘success’ in this area.

“Everything this Government has done in HE over the last 12 months will mean student dissatisfaction as a whole is going to get worse not better. That includes scrapping maintenance grants and forcing loans on disadvantaged students, alongside removing thousands of NHS Bursaries. It also includes not index linking fee repayment thresholds meaning students have to repay more money sooner. Ultimately, as the HEPI survey highlights, this will put off applications from the very groups of disadvantaged young people the Government claims they want to assist.”

 Ends