Students at elite universities enjoy biggest bursaries

Using the new figures, UCU has ranked the average level of bursaries institutions offered to those students eligible for financial support in the 2009/10 academic year. The average bursary for these students was £885.

The union found that five institutions, including the University of Oxford, the University of Cambridge and Imperial College, offered poorer students bursaries of more than £2,000 in 2009/10. However, only one in four students at Oxford, Cambridge and Imperial was eligible for bursaries compared to over 90% at the University of Northumbria, for example.

Over four-fifths of students at the University of Bradford (82.3%), at the University of Bedfordshire (88.2%) and the University of Northumbria (92.5%) were eligible for a bursary, but they received an average bursary of just £679, £754 and £628 respectively. Despite the lower bursary levels, the universities spent a similar proportion (roughly a third) of their fee revenue on bursaries. See table below.

UCU general secretary, Sally Hunt, said: 'It is over-simplistic to suggest that it is the size of bursaries alone that determine where students study. However, we need to provide better support for students from poorer backgrounds wherever they study.

'The universities with the best records of recruiting students from the poorest backgrounds have higher drop-out rates and cannot offer bursaries to match the elite institutions. Under the new fees system, universities will struggle to offer enhanced packages of student support as extra fee revenue will be used to plug funding gaps following government cuts.'

Details of bursary size, number of students on bursaries and money spent on bursaries by the universities mentioned in the release. The full table is available from the press office.

* 'OFFA countable'