Students in England stand to miss out on £1,500 a year each when the value of the maintenance loan for the next academic year is decided this month, the Russell Group has warned.
The level of support given to students to cover their expenses has not risen in line with the skyrocketing cost of living because it is set using inflation forecasts, which have been inaccurate every year since 2020-21.
With just two weeks to go until Ucas’ deadline for applications for university entry in 2023-24, students are still waiting to hear how much the new loans will be worth, with some hopeful that increases will be higher than normal to account for the rapid rise in inflation driven by the pandemic and the war in Ukraine.
But if the Department for Education sticks to its usual methodology of uprating maintenance loans by projections, the amount could increase by only 2.8 per cent, the figure forecast by the government’s Office for Budget Responsibility for what inflation will be in the first quarter of 2024.
