Evidence on the effect of educational finances on participation

The possibility of reform to the financing of third level education seems somewhat higher than usual. This summary of a recent report from the IFS analyses recent reforms in the UK is well worth looking at.
Amongst their conclusions are
"The reforms had no overall impact on HE participation at age 18 or 19 in England. But grants, fees and loans do impact on participation and in different ways: a £1000 increase in fees has a negative impact on participation of around 4.4 percentage points (compared to an age 18/19 participation rate of around 1 in 5). This outweighs the positive impact of a £1000 increase in loans (3.2 percentage points) or grants (2.1 percentage points). Thus, increasing fees without increasing loans and/or grants by the same value or more, will result in a negative impact on participation."

AND

"Finally, our research shows that the most important cause of low attendance at university by young people from low income backgrounds is not the cost attending university. More important is the typically very low attainment of children from poor backgrounds throughout their schooling careers."

http://www.ifs.org.uk/pr/fees_review.pdf