ABSTRACT
Professor Wragg’s article (Education Agenda, August 9) attacks so-called voucher finance (more accurately described as student bursaries) for higher education. He sets out problems which might arise if such a system were implemented in a short-sighted way. But that is not an argument against a properly organised system of bursaries. Taking Professor Wragg’s criticisms in turn:
(1) The declining pool of 18-year-olds in the 1990s would lead to an unseemly scramble for voucher-bearing school leavers:
This would be a problem only if Government were to act stupidly by reducing funding in line with the declining number of 18-year-olds. If instead it continued to fund the same number of students as now, a larger proportion of 18-year-olds and/or a larger number of mature students could go into higher education and there would be no need for a scramble.
