Research suggests that higher education finance has had a limited role to play in participation. But given the substantial increase in tuition fees from 2012 this may not continue to be the case

The cap on tuition fees will rise to £9,000 in 2012. Gill Wyness reviews the evidence on the impact of past fee increases on young people’s decisions to go to university and finds that tuition fees, grants and loans have all had limited impacts on participation which is determined more by prior educational attainment. However, current analytical modelling cannot adequately control for the rate of increase set to be ushered in next year and questions remain as to whether debt-aversion will significantly put off bright young people from poor backgrounds.