Latest editorial
REPORTS that the Tories are planning to scrap the cap on tuition fees for higher education are a wake-up call to the profound damage successive governments have done to an essential public service.
And news that elite universities are concocting a plot to find another source of student loans in order to ramp charges up to £16,000 a year or more confirms the slide towards a two-tier education system.
The government will doubtless deny it has specific plans to raise or abolish the cap.
Cuts are sweeping campuses as cash-strapped universities slash staff and politicians fail to act on a growing funding emergency. VINCE MILLS reports
Almost half of universities face deficits, merger mania is taking hold, and massive fee hikes that will lock out working-class students are on the horizon, write RUBEN BRETT, PAUL WHITEHOUSE and DAN GRACE