One upshot of last week’s reshuffle is that Number 10 will get its review of higher education. But a lengthy look at tuition fees would be a mistake in both policy and political terms, I argue in the magazine this week.
Tuition fees have all but killed the Liberal Democrats. The breach of their manifesto pledge to abolish the charges, compounded by them voting for a fees increase, broke the party.
Even the Tories can’t compete, nor should they want to, with Labour’s pledge to abolish tuition fees. So any plan to reduce fees isn’t going to work politically. All it would do is help Labour by pushing the issue up the agenda.
Policy-wise, fees are the least worst option. They ensure that graduates make a reasonable contribution to the cost of their degree, that sufficient money goes to universities and, because the state doesn’t have to cap the number of students going, allows more students from disadvantaged backgrounds to go to university.
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