The Third Revolution

One revolution is usually enough. But England’s universities today are already dealing with two. And a third is on the way.

The one good thing about the student riots, high-pressure debates in Parliament and chaotic policy-making at the end of 2010 is that they brought home the scale of the change that MPs were voting on. All sides recognised that the replacement of universities’ block grant for teaching with tuition fees, the rise in fees and the increase in student borrowing were momentous changes.