Tuition Fees in England, Impacts and Implications

The In Focus section of the magazine IAU Horizons (Vol. 19 No.3) includes 10 papers focusing on the theme: Student Tuition Fees – perspectives from around the world.
Tuition Fees in England, Impacts and Implications, by Sir Howard Newby, Vice-Chancellor, University of Liverpool, UK (iau@iau-aiu.net) 
In 2011 the coalition government announced that it would be lifting the maximum fee chargeable to Home and EU undergraduate students by English universities from just over £3,000 to £9,000 for those entering Higher Education in September 2012 and beyond (it’s important to remember that different funding regimes operate for the other constituent parts of the UK). The announcement followed the Brown review, and its rhetoric of putting students at the heart of the system was borrowed to justify it. Increasing fees, so the argument went, empowered students by putting them in control of purchasing. Universities, shorn of large chunks of government funds for teaching would have to respond to student needs in order to attract them and for teaching to remain viable. They would also, as a condition of charging an increased fee, have to provide improved information for applicants about student life, courses offered and outcomes for graduates.
Read more in the magazine IAU Horizons (Vol. 19 No.3).