Marsden: cap on numbers not inevitable when fees scrapped

The shadow minister for higher education and skills has said he does not accept that a cap on student numbers is inevitable under Labour’s plan to scrap tuition fees.

Speaking at a fringe event on 26 September, Gordon Marsden, shadow minister for higher education, further education and skills, said he didn’t accept that was automatically going to be the case. “I wouldn’t want it to be the case,” he said.

He did not explain the exact mechanisms that would prevent this but said the argument was “trotted out by the government and others who wanted to defend the status quo”.