Warrington's university entrants fall by 12 per cent

THE number of young people from Warrington going to university has fallen by 12 per cent.
At the same time, there is also evidence that fewer students from the borough are applying to the elite Russell Group universities and to universities outside the North West.
The figures – released by Warrington Borough Council – come as a shock as, nationally, record numbers of young people are going to university.
Only last month it was revealed that the number of university entrants had topped 500,000 for the first time ever – up nearly 17,000 to 512,400.
Warrington South prospective Parliamentary candidate Nick Bent blames the 12 per cent drop in the borough on the increased tuition fees introduced by the Coalition government.
He said: “Since the Coalition government hiked tuition fees to £9,000 per annum in September 2012, the number of Warrington students applying to university has fallen by over 12 per cent, in contrast to the national trend.
“In 2011, the last year before tuition fees were trebled, 1,448 Warrington students applied to university. In 2013, this number had fallen to 1,267 – a drop of over 12 per cent.
“There is also evidence that fewer Warrington students are applying to the elite Russell Group universities and to universities outside the North West – the trebling of tuition fees seems to be limiting students’ choices of where to study.”
Mr Bent added: “Warrington is an aspirational town and a lot of families here want their kids to go to Uni. But their income is just above the threshold for getting financial help – so the freedom to choose whether or where to go to Uni has been restricted by the trebling of tuition fees – and that is unfair.”
Mr Bent pointed out that Warrington had also been a big net loser on education funding under the Coalition government.
In 2010, Warrington lost £80 million of capital funding that had been promised by the previous Labour government to rebuild schools such as Penketh High School and Sir Thomas Boteler.
Warrington had slipped down the local authority eucation funding league table and was now 142nd out of 151 councils in England.
Previously the town had been 132nd in the table.
“Just in the last year, in real terms, Warrington has lost £91 of funding for every pupil in the town – this equates to a total loss of over £2.5 million in one year.
Cllr Jean Carter, the borough council’s lead member for children’s services, said: “Our Labour council is working hard to give every young person a good chance in life but this Tory-led government is slashing investment in education and that is bad for social justice and bad for Warrington’s future economy.”
Picture: Nick Bent talking to Bridgewater High School sixth formers.