Student reaction to the HE White Paper

The government’s higher education white paper, titled Students at the Heart of the System has been published and students were directed to The Student Room to discuss it.

The first member (I’m_a_Procrastinator) to voice their opinion focussed on how ‘increasing social mobility and widening access’ is promoted but ‘the issue of maintenance loans not covering the accommodation costs of many students’ is ignored and that there is too much focus on ‘the poorest’.

“Political Filler”
They also refer to the governments use of ‘hokum’, ’fancy’ and ‘meaningless words’, which is echoed by others who refer to the ‘political filler’ (maveryck) and ‘bureaucratic clap trap’ (rmg2010).

Another user (E_Blackadder) references the Browne report and how ‘it was too complicated for Joe Bloggs – but – we don’t want a dumbed down version – just – to see the points relative to us.’

“Politicians aren’t on the side of students”
Others support this saying that ‘you can’t produce a report titled ‘Students at the Heart of the System’ but then produce it in a format that only 1% of students will actually read’ (Maybe The Student Room will write one).

User ‘chrislpp’ has little faith: ‘Over the last 12 months we’ve all been reminded – politicians aren’t on the side of students – only themselves’.

“Masking the bigger issues”
Another recurring point addressed by students is that there is too much focus on the KIS (Key Information Sets) data and although they believe ‘information and data should be as open and honest as possible’ but they feel it may be ‘masking the bigger issues’.

The same student also points out that stats aren’t enough, which is why they ‘talk to other students’ on sites like TSR to get more information.

Click here to see the full discussion unfold as students get to grips with the impact this white paper could have on the future of their education