By John Glen. Less government intervention would give universities the freedom to compete. Universities in the UK are institutions of which we can be rightly proud. Many provide world-class tuition and research, drive innovation and economic growth, and sit at the heart of British intellectual life.
In recent years, the political debate around higher education has been about fees. The bold steps by the Coalition to reduce the funding burden on the taxpayer were a move towards a more stable financial footing for universities. But it would be wrong to think that reform must stop here. We need to find a sustainable funding solution. The sector is often stifled by unnecessary government regulation and misguided interventions from quangos. There are still many areas where universities should be given greater freedom and independence to allow the higher education sector to flourish. Read more...

One month before the start of province's post-secondary education summit, Quebec's higher education minister is rejecting calls for free university tuition.
Pierre Duchesne said several good ideas came up during the dozen meetings with students and university administrators organized by the Parti Québécois since its election in September.
But, he said free tuition is not an option for the Quebec government, which has been looking instead at indexing education fees to the cost of living.
"The good thing about this possibility is that there are different indexation models, some of which resemble a freeze, others which are indexed based on certain indicators," said Duchesne.
Higher Education Minister Pierre Duchesne said the government can't afford to make tuition free in Quebec.Higher Education Minister Pierre Duchesne said the government can't afford to make tuition free in Quebec. The minister promised to come up with concrete solutions to reform tuition fees. Read more...

By Rebecca Ratcliffe. Some institutions have reported big drop in enrolments while others have expanded, according to Ucas statistics. The introduction of higher fees last autumn caused "wild and dangerous swings" in enrolments at UK universities, statistics have revealed.
The number of students starting degree courses fell 12% when fees of up to £9,000 were introduced last year, but figures from the Universities and Colleges Admissions Service (Ucas) show that some institutions' cohorts expanded last October as they took advantage of a new policy allowing them to take unlimited numbers of students achieving at least AAB grades at A-level. Read more...

Geneviève Fioraso parle désormais d'un paiement "éventuel", qui sera décidé par les partenaires.
L'inscription à l'université quand on est étudiant en classe préparatoire ne sera finalement pas systématique. Geneviève Fioraso, la ministre de l'Enseignement supérieur, vient en effet de l'affirmer, dans un communiqué de presse dévoilé hier.
Fin de la polémique liée à la gratuité des prépas
La ministre précise, dans ce document, qu'un paiement "éventuel (…) sera laissé à l'initiative des partenaires, dans le cadre des conventions qui associeront les classes préparatoires et les universités". Le paiement ne sera donc pas systématique, mettant également un terme à la polémique liée à la fin de la gratuité des classes prépa, comme cela a été annoncé lundi.

By Nick Anderson. Savvy families shopping for college know that tuition typically rises faster than inflation. So Lauren Seely and her parents in Northwest Washington were startled to learn this year that an upper-tier private college on her short list had frozen its price.
Tuition and fees at Mount Holyoke — $41,456 in fall 2011 — would not rise one dollar in 2012. That helped clinch Seely’s decision last spring to enroll at the Massachusetts women’s college. The freeze reflects a growing movement to hold the line on price in higher education’s private sector, a strategy often targeting those who qualify for little or no financial aid but who worry about how to pay for college in uncertain economic times. For many families, aware that sticker prices for private schools can be at least three times higher than for public ones, these concerns are intensifying as application deadlines approach early next month. Read more...

The introduction of tuition fees is not enough to restore the standard of university teaching – we need to encourage academics to take it seriously, argues Gervas Huxley.
Last year’s furious student protests reminded us that few political debates are as divisive as the battle over tuition fees.
But if the warring parties can agree on anything – optimistic as that sounds – it’s surely that tuition fees should at least benefit the students who pay them. In other words, funding provided by undergraduates should mean better-quality teaching.
Unfortunately, that simply hasn't happened. Why? Because the lack of resources which tuition fees were designed to solve was only ever one part of the problem. So long as higher education does not provide incentives for academics to prioritise teaching, standards will continue to suffer.
Tuition fees were introduced in 1998 in response to a fall in revenue per student from around 1980, itself driven by the desire of successive governments to increase participation in higher education without bothering to actually pay for it. Read more...

By Julia Lawrence. Public universities have long been considered a bargain in higher education, but increasingly that is no longer the case. With a stagnant economy forcing state governments to cut funding for higher education, more schools are forced to make up the difference via tuition hikes — which means that those who considered a public university to be a great deal will now need to examine things a bit more closely.
Consider a Colorado math teacher’s story: he and his decidedly middle-class parents were able to completely cover his tuition which at the time – the mid to late 1980′s – at roughly $8,600 per year. Now that his daughter is looking to follow in his footsteps, the tuition bill has more than doubled. To attend CU, his daughter will have to pay more than $23,000 a year – a sum that is beyond what Joiner and his wife can afford. Read more...

By Jan Petter Myklebust. Hundreds of students blocked a bridge over the Danube in Budapest last Monday and several thousand marched to parliament on Wednesday to protest against cutbacks in scholarships and the introduction of tuition fees for 80% of Hungarian students from 2013.
Most new entrants to Hungarian higher education institutions will have to pay fees of between HUF50,000 and HUF100,000 (US$232 to US$464) per semester from next year.
Students will also have to sign a contract with the government under the student loan scheme, Diakhitel 2.0, pledging to stay and work in Hungary for at least twice as long as their studies lasted. If they leave Hungary, they will have to pay back outstanding tuition fees. This clause will apply for 20 years after graduation. Read more...

By Katrina Trinko. Instead of increasing financial aid, two states are decreasing college tuition.As college costs rise rapidly in most places, Texas and Florida are trying to implement something that has become a radical notion: a degree that costs only $10,000.
Texas governor Rick Perry announced this goal for his state last year. (Perry was inspired by Microsoft founder Bill Gates, who had remarked that online learning ought to make it possible for students to pay just $2,000 per year for college.) In November, Florida governor Rick Scott announced that he, too, wanted to see state colleges offer bachelor’s degrees for $10,000 or less. In Texas, ten colleges have signed on (some of them working together in a partnership), while in Florida, twelve colleges — nearly half of the 23 four-year colleges in the Florida community-college system, which includes both two-year and four-year institutions — either have developed proposals or are in the process of doing so.
Considering that the nation’s public colleges cost $13,000 per year on average for tuition, room, and board, while private colleges cost an average of $32,000 a year, according to the National Center for Education Statistics’ 2010–11 academic-year numbers, Texas and Florida colleges have their work cut out for them. But there is plenty of demand for cheaper degrees: Some 57 percent of Americans think students are not getting enough value for the money they spend, according to a May Pew Research Center survey. Read more...