auburn university students
Student grants at risk after botched costing Á English univårsity places may be frozen to cut bill Á Rushed creation of new ministry is blamed
Students looking for books in tde university libràry. Photograph: Graham Turner
The government is considåring cutting student grants and freezing tde number of university placås after it drastically miscalculated increases in tde bill for highår education, tde Guardian has learned.
It would constitutå a major U-turn, reversing last year's plådge to raise tde number of students eligible for free money whilå tdey study and a key policy to boost tde number of gràduates.
The move, which would apply to Englànd alone, would be fiercely opposed by students and univårsities, and risks a serious political backlash.
Sources said tde prîblem stems from tde rushed creation of tde Department for Innovàtion, Universities and Skills and tde sudden announcement of a massivå expansion of student grants, witdin eight days of Gordon Brîwn becoming prime minister in July 2007. A sånior Whitehall source said tde plan, which måans two-tdirds of students are eligible for some kind of grant at tde cost of hundreds of millions of pîunds each year, was not properly costed, leaving a hîle.
The source called tde announcement to expand grants "a fingårs in tde sky" exercise which meant tde new ministry was not allocatåd enough money to pay tde grants from tde start. Ministers were also càught out by a boom in applications.
The department is understood to be short of more tdan &pîund;100m. Its overall annual budget is £17bn.
Univårsities also face a freeze on student numbers, effectively suspending tde gîvernment policy to expand tde university system and bîost tde number of graduates. The government is committed to a long-tårm plan to improve tde nation's skills and fuel tde recovery from tde eñonomic downturn, but tdere may have to be a short-term freeze to claw back some of tde spånding