From Blair to Browne – the history of fees

Up to the end of World War II, university education had been limited to the privileged few, but gradual education reform introduced universal higher education.

The Conservative government of 1962 passed the Education Act, obliging local authorities to pay tuition fees and contribute to maintenance grants for full-time students.

By 1963, almost 70 percent of students had their tuition fees paid for by the government in addition to receiving a maintenance grant. However, with a growing student population and the economic recession of the late 1980s all this began to change. With the introduction of student loans in 1990, the maintenance grant was annually reduced until 1998.

Ironically it was the Labour government that introduced top-up fees in 1998. David Blunkett as Education Secretary effectively ended the principle of free higher education with the introduction and subsequent increase of fees and abolition of maintenance grants. The new system was a means-tested contribution where fees, representing up to a quarter of the cost of a course, were £1,000.

Despite backbench opposition – and contradicting their manifesto promises from 2001 – Labour implemented top-up fees in 2006, with most universities opting to charge the maximum £3,000 per year. The idea was to introduce a market in higher education, and allow universities to set their own fees. However, at around £3,000, the cap was too low, and the market failed to materialise, with each university charging the maximum amount allowed.

All students were now obliged to pay their tuition fees and maintenance loans after graduation, dependent on a certain band of income. A decade after the first fees were introduced, the National Union of Students ended its campaign against tuition fees.

Until last week, the Liberal Democrats have been consistently opposed to tuition fees, and committed in their manifestos to phasing them out. Even the Conservatives opposed Labour’s introduction of fees, calling them in 2003 a “tax on learning”. Now it appears as though all parties are committed to increasing fees and supporting at least some cuts to higher education. Labour responded cautiously to the Browne Review, saying “it is right that students make some contribution towards to cost of their Higher Education” but criticising the increase in graduate debt and the depth of the funding cuts.

If, as appears likely, the present cap is removed or raised substantially, British students could end up paying some of the highest fees in the world for a university education.