Regrets? A few

The tuition fee debate finally turns to part-time students, and Vince Cable pushes the Liberal Democrats forward as champions of lifelong learning.

The fate of part-time students after tuition fees were increased was his "biggest single regret" from his time as minister, former universities minister David Willetts told an event organised jointly by the Higher Education Policy Institute and the Bridge Group yesterday. He admitted that the model that works for full-time students doesn’t work for part-time students and said that a different solution was needed. Also speaking at the event, Paul Johnson, director of the Institute for Fiscal Studies, said if the current higher education funding system continued, more focus would be needed on regulating the system so it delivered better value for students. We will publish the story on HE later this morning.

Also published today on HE will be Martin McQuillan’s interview with Chris Husbands, vice-chancellor of Sheffield Hallam University and chair of the Teaching Excellence Framework. Over tea, they discuss the secrets of the TEF.