Poor people are being put off going to university. Don't be shocked by the...
University applications are in decline: now there’s a shock. Weeks before the deadline for most courses, demand is down by almost 8 per cent compared to a year ago. It seems clear that – now that the...
View ArticleWhy is Oxford waiving fees for the poorest students?
I usually stick up for Oxford. When people blithely assert that it's a snobbish, elitist place, full only of public school boys, I insist that they are wrong. I think it's a wonderful university,...
View ArticleA tiny decrease in applications to university doesn't mean the sky has fallen in
The report by UCAS on the impact of the introduction of much higher tuition fees is sixty-five pages of quite densely-argued statistical reasoning. It’s not written obfuscatorily, that’s not what I...
View ArticleThere's no easy way to say this, Nick…
Nick Clegg has taken to YouTube to say something that politicians are normally pretty reluctant to, unless it concerns tragedies decades or centuries past: sorry. He's very, very sorry about the whole...
View ArticleWhy do Labour want to give a tax break to bankers?
Labour have had three years to come up with a response to the Government's tuition fee rise. All they have managed is a tax break for the wealthiest graduates. Stephen Twigg wrote last week that Labour...
View Article£16k a year tuition fees at Oxford would steer poor bright students straight...
Oxford's vice-chancellor Prof Andrew Hamilton says that tuition fees of £16,000 a year would better reflect the cost of teaching undergraduates at his university, and the worth of that education to the...
View ArticleCledge: a promise that is not meant to be fulfilled
Cledge (klɛdʒ) vb., intr. To make a promise that was never intended to be honoured; to deceive while boasting of one's integrity. n. A false commitment, made cynically. E.g. "No one believes the...
View ArticleLabour's plan to reduce tuition fees is a tax cut for bankers and lawyers
How do you spend £1.7 billion? Tax relief for City high-flyers is Labour's new answer. In the wake of the Tories' post-Budget poll bounce, Labour has been searching for a bright new policy to counter...
View ArticleIn their efforts to make tuition fees fairer, the Coalition has created a...
File this under your lengthening list of “things that could easily have been predicted – even by the class dunce – but apparently weren’t, for some obscure reason best known to UK policymakers.” The...
View ArticleBedroom tax U-turn: is Nick Clegg actually trying to remind people why they...
Why does Nick Clegg think people hate Nick Clegg? Does he think it might be his surname? Clegg. Dull, leaden. Strangely redolent of a south Wales slagheap. Or maybe it’s his appearance. The way his...
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