Celtic tigers

Wales raises tuition fees and Scotland publishes an international strategy

When the immovable object meets the irresistible force, something has to give. On this occasion, it is the raising of university tuition fees, something the experts generally agreed was politically toxic.

However, it is not a much-needed lift in the value of government-backed undergraduate loans in England—Robert Halfon, minister for skills, apprenticeships and higher education, described that as “impossible”. Rather, it is the Cardiff government that has looked at the sustainability crisis in Welsh universities and blinked first.