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Student borrowing is a major higher education public policy issue, with students in both England and the United States increasingly relying on loans to finance postsecondary education. Our paper examines prospective higher education students' attitudes towards debt in England and the United States. It exploits a unique dataset which allows us to compare students' responses to similar surveys conducted in both countries during the same time period. Our study is the first of its kind to explore how students' borrowing attitudes differ across the two countries. It confirms widespread loan aversion among prospective higher education students in both countries. But students in the United States are more debt averse than their peers in England. These debt averse attitudes also predict lower intentions to pursue higher education, potentially exacerbating existing inequalities in access. We consider how these attitudes to borrowing are likely shaped by each country's distinctive student loan system. We conclude that the design of loans matters. England's income-contingent loan repayments, in contrast to North America's mortgage style repayments, make borrowing less risky and reduce the impact of loan aversion on participation decisions, while borrowing is more common, and the system less complicated, in England. Thus, there are lessons for other countries considering introducing student loans or reforming their provision. We contribute to the extant literature on the determinants of, and socioeconomic differences in, higher education participation and the overlooked role of student debt aversion.

A hallmark of English higher education (HE) over the last twenty years has been policies seeking to increase provider competition and student choice. Central to this has been student funding policy changes, leading to rising college costs. This article asks if prospective HE students' concerns about college costs and the financial strategies they anticipate using because of them, widen or limit their choice of HE institution and subject of study. It calls on the findings from a nationally representative survey of 1,374 English college applicants and uses latent class analysis to develop a typology of students' planned financial coping mechanisms: "Minimizing costs"; "Managing costs and maximizing returns"; and "No financial concerns"; which prove to be socially stratified. "Minimizing costs" students are the most disadvantaged and adopt mechanisms which constrain their choices of where and what to study, unlike students in the other groups. Thus, government policies aimed at improving student choice potentially have the opposite effect for the most disadvantaged, perpetuating existing inequalities in access to, and the experience of, HE.

This paper reports on recent research aimed at assessing how the management of the undergraduate student experience in English higher education is changing in the light of the new tuition fee regime introduced in 2012, as well as other government policies aimed at creating market-type pressures within the higher education sector. A distinction was observed between the research-intensive universities studied--defined here as institutions where research income comprised 20 per cent or more of total turnover, with correspondingly strong positions in published research-based rankings--and universities largely dependent on income from teaching, with weaker market positions. Broadly speaking, the latter group were responding to market pressures by centralizing services, standardizing procedures, and strengthening management controls over teaching processes. The research-intensive universities tended to work within existing institutional cultures to respond to students' needs. Organizational change here usually took the form of creating more coherent functional groupings of student services, rather than comprehensive reorganizations. It appears to us that these different responses to a changed environment point to the creation of two distinct English university types, one strongly managerial with "student as customer" orientations, and a smaller group with less centralized, more collegial cultures.

England and the United States provide a very interesting pairing as countries with many similarities, but also instructive dissimilarities, with respect to their policies for higher education access and success. We focus on five key policy strands: student information provision; outreach from higher education institutions; student financial aid; affirmative action or contextualisation in higher education admissions; and programmes to improve higher education retention and completion. At the end, we draw conclusions on what England and the US can learn from each other. The US would benefit from following England in using Access and Participation Plans to govern university outreach efforts, making more use of income-contingent loans, and expanding the range of information provided to prospective higher education students. Meanwhile, England would benefit from following the US in making greater use of grant aid to students, devoting more policy attention to educational decisions students are making in early secondary school, and expanding its use of contextualised admissions. While we focus on England and the US, we think that the policy recommendations we make carry wider applicability. Many other countries with somewhat similar educational structures, experiences, and challenges could learn useful lessons from the policy experiences of these two countries.

The original version of this article unfortunately contained mistakes. Below are the corrections: 1. On page 9, '83%' should be changed to '84%' in this line 'However, because most students take out both types of loans (84% of borrowers in....', Author(s): Ariane de Gayardon [sup.1], Claire Callender [sup.2], Francis Green [sup.1] Author Affiliations: (1) grid.83440.3b, 0000000121901201, Centre for Global Higher Education, UCL Institute of Education, , 20 Bedford Way, WC1H [...]

Faced with higher education expansion and limited public funding, governments globally have resorted to student loans to shift more costs onto graduates. However, there are growing concerns about graduates' mounting debt, and its potentially damaging economic and societal consequences. Income-contingent loans are seen as a potential solution because of their protective features and image of fairness. Yet, research suggests that such an image is at odds with some graduates' subjective experiences of income-contingent loan debt. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Within the UK, part-time study is now seen as important in meeting wider government objectives for higher education (HE) and for sustainable economic growth through skills development. Yet, measures to capture the impact of HE may not be wholly appropriate to part-time study. In particular, the continuing focus on tangible, economic measures may be down-playing, or even completely overlooking, other gains. Data from a longitudinal study of part-time students show that irrespective of whether graduates had changed job or employer, or had stayed in the same job, individuals reported substantial work-related gains from their HE studies. We suggest that current research questions that focus on job moves and progression within the labour market, may well be the wrong questions to ask to gauge measures of benefits/returns to HE. Further research is needed to develop measures to fully capture the social returns of skills acquisition through part-time study.

This article critically assesses the nature and scope of current financial support for part-time undergraduates in England, highlighting its importance for widening participation. It considers the limitations of these financial arrangements, why they are in need of reform, and some of the consequences of their inadequacies. The paper argues that the system of support favours full-time HE at the expense of part-time. Consequently, there are now clear incentives for higher education institutions (HEIs) to grow their full-time programmes and run down their part-time provision. Thus, the current financial provision impedes the growth of part-time HE and reduces students' opportunities for studying part-time and for lifelong learning, at a time when flexible provision is increasingly important for economic growth and recovery. The inadequacy of the financial support for part-time students leaves untouched the financial barriers to part-time HE participation. Together these issues undermine the goals of widening HE participation and social justice, and perpetuate inequalities within and across the HE sector in England. (Contains 1 table and 2 figures.)

The 2004 Higher Education Act introduced variable tuition fees of up to 3,000 British Pounds for full-time undergraduates in England. Higher Education Institutions (HEIs) charging the maximum tuition must give low-income students bursaries of 300 British Pounds. On top of this mandatory minimum, HEIs now provide additional discretionary financial support exceeding this level to these and other students. The degree to which these new bursaries and discretionary financial support have become a policy instrument for improving access and widening participation has not, as yet, been documented. Little is known about why the government introduced bursaries and what the government saw as their role. Even less is known about the type of bursaries HEIs have introduced or how they are being used, because up till now they have not been examined systematically. This article presents the first such analysis. It concludes that, from the evidence currently available, a mismatch exists between government aspirations and HEIs' actual use of bursaries and scholarships. Moreover, the bursaries and scholarships put in place may perpetuate existing divisions within and across higher education. (Contains 8 notes.)

The new student funding regime introduced by the 2004 Higher Education Act in England is predicated on the accumulation of student debt. Variable tuition fees, repaid by student loans, will increase average student loan debt on graduation. This article examines how fear of debt and financial constraints affect prospective students' choices of where and what to study. Using data derived from a survey of about 2000 prospective students, it shows that financial issues constrain lower social class students' choice of university far more than those from other social classes. It demonstrates that fear of debt is related to two key financially-driven decisions--applying to a university with low living costs, and applying to one with good term-time employment opportunities--but only for students from low-income families. However, concerns about debt do not influence their choice of qualification and subject. The article concludes that low-income students are more likely than their wealthier peers to perceive the costs of higher education as a debt rather than an investment. (Contains 7 tables.)

Term-time employment among Britain's undergraduates is a growing phenomenon but it has received scant attention from government and policy makers. Although there are numerous studies on the subject, few have explored the impact of term-time employment on students' actual attainment and those that have are limited. This article attempts to fill that gap. Using data derived from 1000 students in six UK universities, it quantifies the impact of students' paid work on their actual marks and degree results, while controlling for their academic attainment on entry to higher education and other factors including their hours of work. It shows that irrespective of the university students attended, term-time working had a detrimental effect on both their final year marks and their degree results. The more hours students worked, the greater the negative effect. Consequently, students working the average number of hours a week were a third less likely to get a good degree than an identical non-working student. Some of the least qualified and poorest students are most adversely affected perpetuating existing inequalities in HE. The 2006/07 changes to student finances may help some of them, but term-time employment is likely to remain part of the HE landscape. (Contains 4 tables and 13 notes.)

We report long period grating (LPG) devices based on a hybrid architecture incorporating photopatternable fluorinated poly(aryl ether ketone) and silica layers for applications in wavelength filtering and power distribution. The grating structure was implemented using a periodic corrugation on a thermally oxidized silica lower cladding layer, a photopatterned fluorinated polymer ridge waveguide, and a similar polymer top cladding. In this design, the corrugated silica layer allows a highly stable grating structure, while the fluorinated polymer offers a low propagation loss and easy processability. Strong rejection bands have been demonstrated in the C + L wavelength band, in good agreement with theoretical calculations. The fabricated LPG devices show a thermal dependence of 1.5 nm/[degrees]C. Based on this design, an array of waveguides incorporating LPGs has also been fabricated. Distribution of light at the resonance wavelength across all the channels from a single input has been demonstrated. These results are promising for power distribution in photonic network applications or on-chip sensors. OCIS codes: 050.2770, 130.5460, 230.7390, 230.7408, 220.3740.

Low-attenuation waveguides based on the propagation of long-range surface plasmon polaritons (LRSPPs) along thin Au stripes embedded in low absorption perfluorocyclobutane (PFCB) polymer are presented. A new low in propagation loss of OCIS codes: 230.7390, 240.6680, 310.6860, 160.5470.

The fabrication of embedded microchannels monolithically integrated with optical waveguides by plasma-enhanced chemical vapor deposition of doped silica glass is reported. Both waveguide ridges and template ridges for microchannel formation are patterned in a single photolithography step. The microchannels are formed within an overlay of borophosphosilicate glass (BPSG), which also serves as the top cladding layer of the silica wavegnides. No top sealing of the channels is required. Surface accessible fluid input ports are formed in a BPSG layer, with no additional steps, by appropriate design of template layers. By tightly controlling the refractive index of the waveguide layer and the microchannel-forming layer, fully integrated structures facilitating optical coupling between solid waveguides and liquids segments in various geometries are demonstrated. Applications in liquid-filled photonic device elements for novel nonlinear optical devices and in optical sensors and on-chip spectroscopy are outlined. OCIS codes: 130.1750, 130.3120, 230.7380.

A series of novel cross-linkable bromo-fluorinated poly(arylene ether ketone)s have been synthesized and used to fabricate photonic devices. The polymers, prepared by polycondensation reactions of decafluoro-benzophenone with mixtures of bisphenols in different ratios, exhibit excellent solubility in common organic solvents and can be easily cast into optical-quality thin films by spin coating. The materials are thermally stable with decomposition temperatures ([T.sub.d], 5% weight loss) over 450 [degrees]C and have high glass transition temperatures ([T.sub.g]) in the range of 164 [degrees]C-178 [degrees]C. By controlling the bromine content of the polymers, the refractive index can be precisely controlled over a range as wide as 0.07. The material has excellent design flexibility, low optical loss (0.4-0.6 dB/cm at 1550 nm), a low birefringence (2-3 x [10.sup.-3]), and is suitable for use in wavelength sensitive photonic devices based on arrayed waveguide gratings. OCIS codes: 130.3130, 130.1750, 160.5470.