:clap: The Boy Owen got there first.

[World's End Stella]

Yes, yes and no, in that order. In fact it is the Tories again now opening the route to university status for the private sector.

So the next logical question is that if Blair dumbed down A levels to get another 35% of students into university (assuming the UK used to have 15% of students in university like most countries) without increasing the number of universities, where did he expect the 35% to go?

[Peter]

So the next logical question is that if Blair dumbed down A levels to get another 35% of students into university (assuming the UK used to have 15% of students in university like most countries) without increasing the number of universities, where did he expect the 35% to go?

Aha! You are labouring under the old notion that only a certain number of students were qualified to go to university and that those universities could only cope with that number. Wildly untrue.

Entry requirements were never set at the level required to be able to do well on the course. They were set high to attract the best students to fill the limited number of places available because the government would only pay for so many. Thus free tuition actually worked as a middle class subsidy, all of us paying for the education of a small number of mostly middle class kids.

What Blair did was introduce a tuition fee at 3 grand. Immediately there were more places, lower entry requirements and plenty of space at our universities with hundreds of thousands of perfectly well qualified kids suddenly given an opportunity.

Paradise

[World's End Stella]

Aha! You are labouring under the old notion that only a certain number of students were qualified to go to university and that those universities could only cope with that number. Wildly untrue.

Entry requirements were never set at the level required to be able to do well on the course. They were set high to attract the best students to fill the limited number of places available because the government would only pay for so many. Thus free tuition actually worked as a middle class subsidy, all of us paying for the education of a small number of mostly middle class kids.

What Blair did was introduce a tuition fee at 3 grand. Immediately there were more places, lower entry requirements and plenty of space at our universities with hundreds of thousands of perfectly well qualified kids suddenly given an opportunity.

Paradise

So if that was the magical solution that opened up university to all these students, why is it now 9 grand?

[Peter]

So if that was the magical solution that opened up university to all these students, why is it now 9 grand?

Because loads of them started going, even some of the poor kids. The spoilt little ****s then started to demand good jobs when they left.

Seriously, it was the financial crisis. It wasn't a great move, and that was Labour (Brown, not Blair, before you start).