Old problems

The TUC research adult learners, while university lobby groups gear up for the chancellor’s statement

Playbook has been around the block so many times that there are a whole host of issues we have covered and re-covered on more occasions than we care to remember. One of those issues is the shocking decline in the number of mature students in the UK since tuition fees were tripled by the coalition government in 2010.

There was much to praise in England’s higher education funding reforms 12 years ago. Despite sensational headlines, the £9,000 system had plenty of built-in caveats which meant not all graduates would repay the full amount, and some would pay nothing at all. It has been argued that the system is a sort of graduate tax in disguise.