A TREND of working-class students not going to university due to the cost-of-living crisis may emerge this year, experts have said.

Tory anti-university rhetoric and a widening post-pandemic attainment gap is also expected to make higher education increasingly “the preserve of privileged elites.”

Lee Elliot Major, professor of social mobility at the University of Exeter, said he was concerned that young people from disadvantaged backgrounds across the country will be disproportionately put off from studying university degrees.

Ahead of A-level results day next Thursday, he said: “Many more school leavers are questioning the value of more academic study, worried by the cost-of-living crisis on campus, and digesting the constant diet of negative headlines about higher education, from ‘Mickey Mouse’ courses to financial turmoil across the sector.

“From a social mobility perspective, the concern is that students from lower-income backgrounds are disproportionately turning away from higher education, potentially missing out on the transformative impact it can have on their futures.”

Figures released by Ucas last month showed the proportion of 18-year-old British school leavers applying to higher education fell to 41.9 per cent from 42.1 last year and 44.1 in 2022.

Rose Stephenson, director of policy and advocacy at the Higher Education Policy Institute think tank, said: “School leavers are aware of the cost-of-living crisis and that the current maintenance support package is no longer fit for purpose.

“While alternative routes into the workforce are welcome, it is imperative that students have the ability and drive to go on to higher education don’t have their ambitions curtailed due to their economic circumstances.

“I am concerned we are going to see this trend develop this year.”

Labour will not achieve its core mission if it does not remove barriers deterring working-class people from entering higher education, University and College Union general secretary Jo Grady warned.

“Now Labour is back in power, it urgently needs to address the cost-of-living issues that may deter working-class students from going to university. This should include increases to student hardship funds, action on soaring rents and a financial package that protects university courses and jobs,” she said.

The Russell Group said that there has not been a “significant” drop in application rates from disadvantaged students this year.

Its universities offer measures to mitigate the disproportionate impact of cost-of-living pressures and the loss of learning from the pandemic on them.