Time to call the non-EU doctor | Letters
Alison Garnham isdistressed about Brexit and the ‘hostile environment’ policy. Prof Peter Ekkehard Kopp addresses immigration panicStanding on a tube platform, Miriam González Durántez’s article (May...
View Article‘An education arms race’: inside the ultra-competitive world of private tutoring
A growing number of parents and guardians are paying for children as young as four to receive additional tuition. What is fuelling this booming industry?As dusk falls in the Girlington district of...
View ArticleSocial mobility tsar warns cuts to tuition fees may not help poorest students
Martina Milburn says her commission will look at reviving maintenance grantsCutting university tuition fees risks failing to help the young people most in need of help to access higher education,...
View ArticleWho’s the minister who could kill or save a university? Oh dear, a...
Chris Skidmore believes in the smallest possible state. Is he going to rescue higher education from market meltdown?We are now on our third universities minister since the Conservatives shed their...
View ArticleTuition fees undid Paddy Ashdown’s achievements | Letters
The former Lib Dem leader was against free university education, says Nigel Boddy, and John Marriott remembers him as a thoroughly decent manPaddy Ashdown once said when criticising the EU: “When...
View ArticleThe Observer view on a graduate tax being the fairest way to pay for...
The proposed multi-tier system of tuition fees would result in poorer students being deterred from the sciencesFour in five young people who go to university will end up repaying 9p of every pound they...
View ArticleUniversity chiefs angry over ‘elitist’ student loan plans
Proposals to bar students without three Ds at A-level would hit courses such as nursing and ‘strike at heart of social mobility’The heads of UK universities have reacted angrily to leaked proposals...
View ArticleCutting tuition fees will turn universities into vassals of the state | Simon...
Lowering the cost of degrees will devastate university budgets. The state will bail them out – in exchange for more controlMeanwhile, back at the ranch – or in this case the campus – the mice are...
View ArticleStudent loan ban: some universities could lose a third of their intake
New figures show up to 36% of freshers have fewer than three Ds at A-level – and would be barred under leaked proposalsSome modern universities could lose about a third of their students and face a...
View ArticleCutting tuition fees won’t help poorer students – reduce interest rates...
The government’s university funding review must not cut fees – that would damage teaching and help only richer students • David Blunkett is a former education secretaryRecent research has shown that...
View ArticleCut tuition fees and you shut the door to poor students | Anne-Marie Canning
Universities rely on income from fees to fund the outreach activities essential to make them more diverseLast week, universities in England were preparing reports on how they have diversified their...
View ArticleA university place for all is the way to abolish tuition fees | Nick Hillman
If higher education had comprehensive coverage like state schools, arguments for taxpayer funding could triumphEngland recently hit Tony Blair’s 50% target for the proportion of the population...
View ArticleThe Guardian view on humanities degrees: art for society’s sake | Editorial
To reduce tuition fees while providing top-up grants only for sciences would distort higher education. We need history, poetry and French as well as Stem subjectsThe number of students studying...
View ArticleSecuring a future for humanities: the clue is in the name| Letters
Prof Joe Smith, director of the Royal Geographical Society, Prof Sir David Cannadine, president of the British Academy, and Prof Norman Gowar respond to a Guardian editorialYour editorial in defence of...
View ArticleAnalysing the purpose and value of universities | Letters
Readers debate course structure, tuition fees, mental health, the importance of arts and humanities, and the need to work for a common goodSimon Jenkins asserts that: “A university course has barely...
View ArticleThe Augar report on higher education has a sting in its tail | Jonathan Wolff
The proposals are significantly regressive, increasing total payments made by lower earners, such as teachers and nursesAs Sir Humphrey would have said, taking on the job of reviewing post-18...
View ArticleThe Augar report pits arts against sciences – and both lose out | Simon...
Cutting fees for arts and humanities degrees would damage Stem subjects tooAfter days of intensive discussion, the strengths and weaknesses of the Augar report on post-18 education policy and funding...
View ArticleUniversities condemn ‘catastrophic’ plan to link fees to graduate pay
Academics say Augar proposals could damage arts degrees and lose Britain its creative edgeAcademics are warning it would be “despicable” if the government went ahead with recommendations to cut funding...
View ArticleUniversities have driven their workers into the ground. That’s why I’m...
Our eight days of action are in response to a marketised sector that has prioritised profit over the welfare of staff and students• Amelia Horgan is a graduate teaching assistant at the University of...
View ArticleThe tuition fees generation is finding its voice in parliament | Gaby Hinsliff
Westminster’s newest recruits are now in a position to challenge older MPs who benefited from a free educationIt has taken a surprisingly long time for the chickens to come home to roost. But watching...
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