Higher education: caps off

Student finance in England has got into a horrible mess. Loans are subsidised, costing the taxpayer a lot of money, and – as a result – the Treasury has rationed them. Some students who have the right qualifications can't get a university place. That is profoundly unsatisfactory for them, as well as for cash-strapped colleges who would like to expand to balance their books. As teaching subsidies in arts and humanities are eliminated, and with even core science, technology and maths subjects underfunded, cash-strapped is exactly what almost all colleges are. More...