Green Paper at a glance

Well, this new agenda is actually not terribly controversial at all. In his influential 'Rethinking Higher Education: On the Future of Higher Education in Britain' [Institute of Economic Affairs], Thomas Lange called for variable tuition fees nearly 20 years ago. It was the right idea then, it is the right idea now. At the time, Prof Lange also made the case for 2-year degrees ... everybody and their kitchen sink wanted to pour scorn on his ideas, only to see Foundation Degrees introduced almost immediately. An income-contingent loan scheme for tuition fee payment was another recommendation by Lange ... again seen as massively controversial at the time; again, introduced soon thereafter. The short of it: apart from some structural changes and institutional mergers, the current Green Paper doesn't really provide terribly novel ideas or approaches. Some (e.g. flex fees) have been around for some time.