University finances and the elephant in the senior common room | Letter

The marketisation of higher education, like the marketisation of other public services, has been an abject failure, writes Avi ShankarOne issue that you didn’t cover in your editorial (The Guardian view on campus discontent: listen to those on the frontline, 22 October) is that undergraduate tuition fees are applied at the same rate regardless of the degree studied, the “prestige” of the institution, or the implications for students’ later employability.When tuition fees were raised in 2012, the government said universities could charge up to £9,000. They naively assumed a market would emerge, with different universities and different courses charging different amounts. But it never did. The entire sector, bar a few institutions, went all-in and charged the full amount. Continue reading...

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