How the decision to triple tuition fees changed history

By Brendan O’Malley. For a good case study in unintended consequences, it would be hard to beat the decision passed after a stormy debate by MPs in December 2010 that went on to imperil not only years of higher education reforms but, inadvertently, the country’s future in the European Union.
Allow me to elaborate. The decision was the vote to pass the fledgling Conservative-Liberal Democrat Coalition government’s bill to allow universities to triple the cap on tuition fees to £9,000 (then US$14,185). More...