Liz Truss can protect poorer students and reverse the damage done by George Osborne – but will she?

Twenty years ago, the vast majority of undergraduates at Oxbridge had been privately educated – that figure now stands at around 30 per cent for both, writes Ed Dorrell

The cost of living crisis must seem an insurmountable problem for prospective students (Getty Images)

Last week I stumbled across a lovely documentary on the telly about the history of University Challenge. It was a truly joyful programme about a joyful quiz show. It was also a wonderful reminder of the changing face of our universities and students.

The earliest black-and-white episodes largely featured white men from Oxbridge colleges competing over their knowledge of the classics (our most recent former prime minister would have fitted right in). When the documentary jumped forward several decades, we found the teams infinitely more diverse, from an infinitely greater range of higher education institutions, and the questions infinitely less predictable.

In short, it’s a better programme that reflects a much more dynamic university sector, that recruits from a much, much wider pool of young people. Even the Oxbridge teams are a lot less white, male and posh. So far, so good.

It wasn’t always expected to be this way. At various stages on the route to the very high levels of tuition fee liability that most students now build up, many people not unreasonably warned that the threat of £27,000 debt would put at risk UCAS applications from young people who grew up in deprived communities – and those whose families don’t have a history of post-18 study.

But thankfully these warnings have largely been proven wrong. The picture is far from perfect, but over time undergraduate recruitment at even our most elite universities, Oxford and Cambridge, and (most of) the so-called “red bricks”, has been from an ever-growing catchment. Twenty years ago, the vast majority of undergraduates at Oxbridge had been privately educated – that figure now stands at around 30 per cent for both.

Research carried out by Public First, where I am a director, found that the fear of tuition fee debt among young people has been receding as the idea becomes more and more established. This, at least partly, explains why campuses are now so diverse – and becoming more so.

The same research, however, had a nasty sting in the tail for those of us who want universities to keep recruiting from every corner of our society: that prospective students are increasingly scared of managing the cost of living while they are actually at university.

That this research was carried out well before the current economic crisis had taken hold of the national conscience should worry us all. I strongly suspect that the same young people we spoke to a year ago who had misgivings about whether they could afford the rent or bills they would need to pay on the way to graduating are now not even bothering to open their UCAS forms. It must seem an insurmountable problem.

Luckily for Liz Truss and her new education secretary, Kit Malthouse, there is an easy solution to this problem – one that has been staring various Conservative administrations in the face for seven or eight years. They should reverse George Osborne’s shameful decision in 2015 to abolish mean-tested grants.

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Even at the time, the move looked regressive – and, to my mind, completely unnecessary. Today, righting that wrong is a non-brainer. In these bleak days, it could not be more important to tell young people from poor homes that as a society we recognise their fears about bills pilling up – and that we want to support them if they want keep studying.

Indeed, this country’s university sector is huge success story, and the diversity of its students plays an increasingly important part in it. We should not let that slide.

The cost of living crisis will undoubtedly leave many hideous stains on our society for years to come. One that could be avoided before it even takes hold is the reversal of years of progress in the demographic make-up of campuses. I dearly hope Ms Truss and Mr Malthouse will give it some thought. I have my doubts.