The financial cost to the student of higher education is often spoken of as the greatest barrier to increasing working-class participation (for example Lynch and O’Riordan 1998; Woodrow 1999). Whereas schools and universities can devise widening participation strategies that address some aspects of the barriers relating to information and qualifications, the barrier of cost is entirely dependent on central government policy. At the time of writing a review of student support arrangements is ongoing. Announcing this review, Estelle Morris, Secretary of State for Education and Skills, was quoted as saying:

I recognize that for many lower income families the fear of debt is a real worry and could act as a bar to higher education. I want to make sure that our future reform tackles this problem. Our aim is to get more children from less privileged backgrounds into higher education and we hope to achieve this by changing the combination of family, student and state contributions.