Educational Leadership

The government has used a cynical “last day of Parliament” manoeuvre before the summer recess to sneak out, with 29 other written statements, an announcement of major increases in tuition fees for the year 2017-18.

The figure of 2.8 per cent will apply to all publicly funded providers who will be eligible to participate in year one of the government’s new teaching excellence framework. 

Only two days ago, the Commons debated the government’s major new Higher Education and Research Bill that would, if passed, support the implementation of the TEF. But ministers didn’t utter a word about these increases in their front bench statements!

Ministers had neither the guts nor the courtesy to do so, preferring to release the information where they could evade further scrutiny from MPs. The list of eligible private and public providers who meet the government’s TEF test was likewise tucked away quietly without fanfare on its website.