Just over 30 per cent of 'middle-income' parents – ie those with income between £15,000 and £40,000 – believe that the recent rise in tuition fees has made university courses too expensive and no longer worth the money, according to research by the Edge charity.
Despite claims by the government that its changes to university funding will make courses more accessible to the less well-off – with fees not needing to be paid back until graduates find work that pays more than £21,000 a year, meaning that around 33 per cent of students will never pay anything – the charity's chairman (former education secretary Lord Baker) said that students would be better advised to take up more vocational courses.
"For too long, middle-income parents have been blinkered to the alternative education options to university for their child," Baker said. "The vocational route equips young people with the skills they need to succeed in the workplace."
But the Department for Business, Innovation and Skills said: "Going to university depends on ability – not the ability to pay. A university degree is an investment in your future."
Separate research by Universities UK (UUK) found that a third of parents didn't fully understand how the funding changes would work. UUK president Sir Steve Smith said: "It is more important than ever that our universities go out and tell a positive story of what we can offer prospective students."