Policy Hub
On 27 October 2005, the Joseph Rowntree Foundation (JRF) published a report (Graduates from disadvantaged families: early labour market experiences) which finds that students from low-income families are paying more for higher education because they incur heavier debts and receive less help with repayments once they graduate. Financial pressures also mean they are more likely to take jobs that do not require a degree when they leave university.
The report is the last in a series of reports charting the progress through higher education of young people from disadvantaged areas of western Scotland. It shows that without significant financial support from families, young people often felt compelled to take the first job that came along. This, in turn, made it harder to launch a graduate career or gain skills that would help them move to jobs where they would be better able to repay their debts.
The study, based on a survey of more than 250 young people, found that their progress from college and university into the labour market had tended to be slow. Nevertheless, many of the young people who took part in the study had made impressive progress in difficult circumstances since they were first interviewed at the end of their school careers five years earlier. The lesson for policy makers is that their support for wider access needs to be matched with fairer funding arrangements.
The full report can be viewed on the JRF website (pdf).