Question

To ask the Secretary of State for Business, Innovation and Skills, what assessment his Department has made of the effect of the reduction in the student opportunity allocation on the ability of financially-disadvantaged students to access higher education.

In the annual grant letters to the Higher Education Funding Council for England, the Government has made it clear that widening participation is a priority. Overall investment in widening participation through the Student Opportunity Fund and other sources increased from £977m in 2012-13 to £1,129m in 2014-15.

Information from UCAS for the 2014 application cycle shows that the entry rate for the most disadvantaged has risen by 10% proportionately to 18.2%, the highest ever, making disadvantaged young people in England a third more likely to enter university in 2014 than five years ago.