Concerns over the impact of debt on participation in higher education have dominated much of the debate surrounding the most recent reforms of financial support for full-time students in England, including the introduction of variable tuition fees. Yet few studies have attempted to explore this issue in a statistically robust manner. This article attempts to fill that gap. It examines the relationship between prospective HE students' attitudes to debt and their decisions about whether or not to enter HE. Using data derived from a survey of just under 2,000 prospective students, it shows how those from low social classes are more debt averse than those from other social classes, and are far more likely to be deterred from going to university because of their fear of debt, even after controlling for a wide range of other factors. The paper concludes that these findings pose a serious policy dilemma for the Westminster government. Their student funding policies are predicated on the accumulation of debt and thus are in danger of deterring the very students at the heart of their widening participation policies.

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Research among prospective UK undergraduates in 2002 found that some students, especially from low social classes, were deterred from applying to university because of fear of debt. This paper investigates whether this is still the case today in England despite the changing higher education landscape since 2002. The paper describes findings from a 2015 survey of prospective undergraduates and compares them with those from the 2002 study. We find that students' attitudes to taking on student loan debt are more favorable in 2015 than in 2002. Debt averse attitudes remain much stronger among lower-class students than among upperclass students, and more so than in 2002. However, lower-class students did not have stronger debt averse attitudes than middle-class students. Debt averse attitudes seem more likely to deter planned higher education participation among lower-class students in 2015 than in 2002. Key wordsStudent debt, debt aversion, loan aversion, higher education, student funding were undertaken student funding policies have changed dramatically and debt has risen sharply bringing into question the findings' relevance for today's students and public policy. 3Now most students in England have to borrow if they want to enter higher education.Moreover, this paper exploits a unique dataset derived from a survey of prospective students in 2002 and another in 2015, allowing us to examine changes in students' attitudes to debt over time and the role played by these policy reforms and shifting political and ideological contexts. This is central for understanding the continuing socio-economic inequalities in access to higher education. The shifting higher education landscapeThis section discusses the shifting higher education policy landscape including changes in student funding between 2002 and 2015 and implications for student debt. Student funding policy changes 2002-2015The evolution of higher education funding systems, in England and elsewhere, is dominated by prevailing political and ideological currents, rather than purely economic and pragmatic considerations. Recently England, like many countries, has moved from a system where the costs of funding higher education are shouldered primarily by taxpayers, through government subsidies, to one where students pay a larger share. This cost-sharing approach, a global phenomenon, seeks to increase the total resources available to higher education, especially from non-governmental or private sources (McMahon 2009;Johnstone and Marcucci 2010).3

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