Abstract

The New Labour government consistently hypes up its aim to have 50% of young people participate in higher education by the end of the next decade. The last time student numbers soared was from 1988 to 1994, but several obstacles now seem to stand in the way of this project. The abolition of grants and the introduction of fees put many potential candidates off entering higher education. Students often have to resort to having jobs—at least part-time—so as to finance their studies. Nevertheless, many of them now run up considerable debts. Therefore, even as most potential recruits from the middle-class are entering higher education establishments, the less favoured classes are still reluctant to take the plunge—even though they have been encouraged for some years now to participate in larger numbers. What seems to act as a powerful brake on the expansion and the democratisation of the sector is the very structure of society—with deep-seated socio-economic inequalities—just as much as the contradictions between some of the policies now implemented.