Without overhauling the market-driven system, reducing high fees will only benefit the government
The government is said to be considering reducing university tuition fees in England from £9,250 to £8,500. The reason? Not concern for the plight of students or struggling young graduates. That would be uncharacteristic, to say the least. No, it is interested in cutting them because it wants to save money.
On the face of it, this sounds strange. How can cutting fees, paid by students to universities, be a way to cut government spending? The answer is worth spelling out, as it touches on an abiding myth about England’s system of university funding. Most people assume that making students pay for their education must save public money. The introduction and subsequent hiking of fees was rationalised using the language of economic “sustainability” and “fairness”: why should ordinary taxpayers bear the cost of an education from which graduates derive the primary benefit?
Lorna Finlayson teaches philosophy at the University of Essex
