No review of the tuition fee regime

The government has rejected calls for a rethink, writes Alison Goddard.

Tuition fees will stay at £9,000 for now, after the government yesterday rejected a call for the arrangements to be reviewed. The BBC says that the student funding system is predicted to be carrying £330 billion in loan debts by 2044. The Guardian reports the findings of an earlier inquiry, which identified "persistent miscalculations" in the sums that will not be repaid. We have an article, available only to subscribers to HE, which examines the government’s response to the recommendations of the Commons committee on business, innovation and skills, and reports that the chair of the committee was disappointed with the reaction.

The hike in undergraduate tuition fees in England in 2012 suppressed demand but universities were able to fill their places with students who, in previous years, might not have entered higher education, according to an analysis by Mark Corver of the Universities and Colleges Admissions Service. The Times says that the (£) rise in fees has made university entry easier. Mr Corver also found that higher fees do not seem to have slowed the long-term trend of rising participation and that demand for higher education is now at a record high. He identified a stronger growth in demand from applicants in poorer households than from those in prosperous ones.