Agenda item

Student Maintenance Grants

It was moved by Councillor Mazher Iqbal, seconded by Councillor Mick Rooney, that this Council:-

(a)       condemns the Government’s decision to abolish maintenance grants for lower income students and replace them with a loans system from September 2016;

(b)       notes that around 40% of students at Sheffield Hallam University are reliant on maintenance grants to help fund their studies;

(c)        is concerned that:-

(i)         abolishing maintenance grants will make life harder for students from low income backgrounds, and could deter some from entering higher education; and

(ii)        the Government’s own Equality Impact Assessment reveals a risk to the participation of students from poorer backgrounds, women, BME students, mature students and disabled students;

(d)       recalls comments from the Rt. Hon. Lord David Willetts, former Universities Minister, in 2010: “Our proposals [tuition fee rise] are progressive because they help to encourage people from poorer backgrounds to go to university because of the higher education maintenance grant…”;

(e)       agrees with Dapo Adaramewa, Sheffield Hallam Students’ Union President, that turning the grants into loans “flies in the face of the poorer students who are being saddled with even more debt”;

(f)        notes research from the Institute for Fiscal Studies which found that scrapping maintenance grants will mean the poorest 40 per cent of university students in England will graduate with debts of up to £53,000, rather than £40,500 at present;

(g)       believes that higher education should be accessible to all, including those from low income backgrounds; and

(h)       calls on the Secretary of State for Business, Innovation and Skills and the Education Secretary to reverse this decision.

Whereupon, it was moved by Councillor Colin Ross, seconded by Councillor Andrew Sangar, as an amendment, that the Motion now submitted be amended by the addition of new paragraphs (e) and (f) as follows and the relettering of the original paragraphs (e) to (h) as new paragraphs (g) to (j):-

(e)       notes that increased maintenance grants were a key protection brought in by the Liberal Democrats when tuition fees were raised and have meant that in recent years more students from poorer background have gone to university than ever before;

(f)        regrets the removal of NHS bursaries for student nurses;

On being put to the vote, Paragraph (f) of the amendment was carried and Paragraph (e) was negatived.

(Note 1. The Deputy Lord Mayor (Councillor Denise Fox) and Councillors Julie Dore, Mike Drabble, Jack Scott, Julie Gledhill, Roy Munn, Helen Mirfin-Boukouris, Chris Rosling-Josephs, Ian Saunders, Bryan Lodge, Karen McGowan, Jayne Dunn, Jackie Drayton, Ibrar Hussain, Lewis Dagnall, Anne Murphy, Geoff Smith, Dianne Hurst, Mazher Iqbal, Mary Lea, Steve Wilson, Joyce Wright, Sheila Constance, Alan Law, Garry Weatherall, Steve Jones, Cate McDonald, Chris Peace, Bob Johnson, George Lindars-Hammond, Josie Paszek, Jenny Armstrong, Terry Fox, Pat Midgley, David Barker, Tony Downing, Nasima Akther, Nikki Bond, Mohammad Maroof, John Campbell, Lynn Rooney, Paul Wood, Peter Price, Sioned-Mair Richards, Peter Rippon, Leigh Bramall, Tony Damms, Richard Crowther, Olivia Blake, Ben Curran, Neale Gibson, Adam Hurst, Zoe Sykes, Mick Rooney, Jackie Satur and Ray Satur voted for Paragraph (f) and against Paragraph (e) of the amendment and asked for this to be recorded.

2. Councillors Aodan Marken, Brian Webster and Robert Murphy voted for Paragraph (f) and abstained on Paragraph (e) of the amendment and asked for this to be recorded.)

The original Motion, as amended, was then put as a Substantive Motion in the following form and carried:-