StudentMediaWire

Online student survey specialists Opinionpanel have found that Tory-voting students currently outnumber Labour-voting students by two to one (45% v 24%).

The most recent wave of the Opinionpanel Student Voting Study shows student support for Labour has dropped dramatically.

By contrast, the Tory vote among students has been growing since David Cameron’s October 2005 speech to Conservative Party Conference.

Polls were based on the full time undergraduate student population, who represent around a million potential voters.

Students are an influential group, so shifts in their political allegiance are likely to impact on the views of both the next generation of voters and the future political scene. Today’s students are seen as tomorrow’s higher-earners and opinion leaders.

The most striking finding from these surveys is perhaps that the Liberal Democrats are much more popular among students than they are among voters in general.

The voting preferences of students over the last four years have been analysed by University of Essex professor Paul Whiteley.

Read his report