Encouraging innovation

The higher education and research bill offers a rare chance to introduce the flexible funding of university courses.

One of the things I love about living near a university is the energy and excitement the students bring at the start of term. It reminds me of my own long-ago butterflies of apprehension and opportunity and the relief, after three months of long hours in dull jobs, of being back in a world of late nights in the bar, early mornings on the river and days spent considering what constitutes the perfect city-state, both in the classical world and today.

My university experience was traditional to the point of cliché – which was exactly what I wanted. It also, for a few brief years, allowed me to enjoy the fantasy that I was now part of society’s upper classes. This seductive idea―that higher education is both for the elite and a route to join their ranks―is perhaps why the three or four-year first degree at a university in an unfamiliar town or city has become the standard.