THIS week we reported in the Bolton Evening News that too few sixth form students in the town were moving on to university. Bolton still has one of the lowest staying on rates in the country.

It does seem a great shame that having put in the effort to move on to study at college following school, that only 64 per cent of Bolton students decide to go that one step further.

University offers wonderful opportunities but more and more increasingly these opportunities are being shut off from the majority of families. Gone are the grants, and in their place the student loans and tuition fees, which we hear are about to increase over the next few years.

Yes, there will be a certain amount of help for those with no or low incomes, but what about the silent, increasingly struggling, majority who earn just about enough not to qualify for any sort of financial help. Yet again, this is the band threatened to be hammered by the crippling cost of trying to do their best for their children.