Abstract
The Coalition Government of Conservatives and Liberal Democrats in office from 2010 until 2015 sharply increased the maximum tuition fees for UK and EU undergraduates at English universities to £9,000. Although this is often portrayed as a radical change, it is argued that the reform was an evolution rather than a revolution. Common pessimistic predictions, such as the claim there would be a big fall in the number of full-time students, were wrong. However, the policymaking behind the increase in the fee cap was rushed, and this contributed to shortcomings such as a decline in part-time students. The article considers a series of political mistakes made by the Liberal Democrats, including making the abolition of tuition fees a key part of their election strategy in 2010 when the party’s leaders lacked faith in the policy. The article also notes that critics of the Coalition’s higher education reforms were largely ineffectual because they lacked a strong intellectual case or a clear alternative and fixated on fees to the exclusion of other important issues. The piece ends by asserting that the Coalition’s plan to remove student number controls was a change of overlooked importance.
Highlights
Higher education in England has undergone dramatic change in recent years, in relation to the funding of undergraduate study and, as with schooling, the diversity of provision
The Coalition Government of Conservatives and Liberal Democrats in office from 2010 until 2015 sharply increased the maximum tuition fees for UK and EU undergraduates at English universities to £9,000
Fees, which were backed by income-contingent loans, were capped at a maximum of £9,000—almost three times higher than before—for full-time students at higher education institutions with an Access Agreement acceptable to the Office for Fair Access (OFFA)
Summary
Higher education in England has undergone dramatic change in recent years, in relation to the funding of undergraduate study and, as with schooling, the diversity of provision. Less than two years before the election, in September 2008, Times Higher Education had reported: The leaders of the Liberal Democrats plan to abandon the party's opposition to student tuition fees. Instead, the party split three ways: around one-half of Liberal Democrat MPs supported the new fee levels but more than one-third voted against while the rest either abstained or were abroad on official business This division was the fourth big mistake because the lack of a single position blocked them from being able to portray a clear stance in favour of or opposed to the new fee cap. By focusing on fees to the exclusion of other issues, opponents were unable to pin problems such as the drastic reduction in part-time students on the Coalition
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