Question to the Department for Education:

To ask the Secretary of State for Education, how she plans to encourage more working class students who are concerned about the financial burden in Easington constituency to go to university.

Our student finance system ensures that costs are split fairly between graduates and the taxpayer, while removing financial barriers for anyone hoping to study. All eligible students can apply for fee loans to meet the full costs of their tuition up-front.

By replacing maintenance grants with loans, the Government has been able to increase the funding for living costs that some of the most disadvantaged students receive. Eligible students on the lowest incomes received a 10.3% increase in their living costs support for the 2016/17 academic year with a further 2.8% increase for 2017/18.

Good progress has been made to support disadvantaged young people to go to university. The application rate for disadvantaged 18 year olds is at a record high, showing that people have not been put off by tuition fees.

Universities seeking to charge fees over the basic tuition fee amount must have an agreement approved by the independent Director for Fair Access, setting out what steps they will take to widen participation to disadvantaged students. Universities are expected to spend more than £860 million in 18/19 on measures to improve access and student success for students from disadvantaged backgrounds.