Tuition fee cut is not politically viable, warns David Davis

Former Brexit secretary David Davis has claimed that a reduction in student fees, widely rumoured to be recommended in Philip Augar’s review into post-18 education, would be blocked by parliament.

Speaking at a Westminster Higher Education Forum conference in London on 26 March, Davis said that a proposal to lower tuition fees to £7,500 a year would not make it through the House of Commons or the House of Lords.

“Across the board, £7,500? I would think it would fail in the Commons, and indeed in the Lords,” Davis said in response to a question from Nick Hillman, director of the Higher Education Policy Institute think tank. “Let’s not mince words: I think [Augar] has got an incredible Gordian knot to slice through with his task.”