Professor Claire Ozanne, Chair of the Cathedrals Group of Universities and Vice-Chancellor of Liverpool Hope University, has welcomed the return of maintenance grants for Higher Education students, 
announced by Bridget Phillipson MP, Secretary of State for Education, in her speech to the Labour Party 
Conference on Monday 29 September, but questioned the fairness of using an international student 
levy to pay for them and their restriction to students studying priority subjects. 

Professor Claire Ozanne said:

‘We have long argued for the return of maintenance grants to support students from less wellresourced families. However, we question the fairness of using a levy on international students as the 
basis for reintroducing these grants. Universities have already argued against the wisdom of the levy, 
which would risk undermining further the resources available to universities which are already severely 
stretched. 

But as universities committed to social justice, we would welcome the extension of the maintenance 
grant beyond the government’s current list of priority subjects. If the government is committed to 
increasing opportunities, students from less advantaged backgrounds should not be penalized
financially or pressed into longer hours of paid work, just because they study other subjects. This would 
really be a sting in the tail which would exacerbate inequalities and constrain social mobility.'