Debt too high, the end of Widening Participation?

http://www.guardian.co.uk/society/2009/jun/26/medical-students-debt-low-income I don't think I buy this. A recent Sutton trust report found that of those school students who said they were unlikely to go onto higher education only 13% mentioned debt as a factor in that decision, even when they were allowed to choose multiple causes. Given that only 10% of students said they were very unlikely or fairly unlikely to go to university then I calculate only around 1 in 100 students said that finance was even a factor when deciding that it was unlikely they would go onto university. We know that many students, once they are in higher education, worry about finances but I have yet to see any evidence that potential undergraduates are actually being dissuaded from applying or going to university because of debt fears. The naïveté and optimism of youth perhaps, but they are simply not reporting debt as a major causal factor in this decision making process. For medical students there is also the knowledge that they will earn very good salaries when they qualify. Could it be that the BMA are exaggerating a problem, surely not?