Government to demand better value for money

Jo Johnson, the universities and science minister, is due to call for improved value for money in higher education.

Having criticised the high pay rates of vice-chancellors, Mr Johnson is expected to call for further pay restraint and improved student experiences, in a speech on 20 July.

Despite the recent brouhaha over tuition fees and graduate debts in England, there is little political appetite among Conservatives for an overhaul of the system for funding universities in England. In the past, the outgoing Major government commissioned a review of student finances that reported to the incoming Blair administration in 1997, which introduced fees; the favour was returned more than a decade later when the outgoing Brown government commissioned another review that reported to the 2010 coalition government that increased annual fees to £9,000. Politics is now so febrile that such transitions cannot be so clearly identified, making the bequeathing of reviews less certain.