The Reforms On Tuition Fees Of UK Higher Education Since 1998

Britain is celebrated for its welfare system. Prior to 1998, British higher education was free of charge for students from the UK and other EU countries, and many students were given grants. Announced in 1963, the Robbins Report suggested an expansion of higher education and a shift from "elite" to "mass" higher education. The report is regarded as a milestone in the history of British higher education. It has greatly widened participation in higher education, yet it also brought about funding problems to the UK. In the meantime, the ideologies of "neo-liberalism" and "knowledge economy" were so prevalent that Thatcher decided to replace "free tuition and grants" with "student loans". In 1997, the Dearing Report suggested to ease the funding problem by charging tuition fee. Blair's New Labour government accepted the proposal in 1998, and announced that each student should pay (?)1,000 per annum as tuition. In England in 2004, on its second term, the government increased the level of tuition fees to (?)3,000 per annum. In 2010, the Browne Report proposed removing the cap of tuition and creating a market by allowing HEIs to decide tuitions by themselves. The Coalition Government in the same year decided to implement the (?)9,000 tuition cap in England. The increased tuition not only generated dissatisfaction among students, but also aroused various opinions among MPs from different parties. Why did Blair decide to charge tuition fees? What influence did his policies have on the UK higher education? How did MPs view the tuition issue and what about the public opinion? Has the higher education widened participation and access, as well as improved teaching and research quality? What can China learn from Britain's experience? This study is designed to answer these questions.Some scholars have analysed in depth the UK's tuition issue, mainly concentrating on a certain government, and concluded what changes tuition fees have brought to the UK, especially to England. Many official websites have published their annual data on the effect of tuition reforms. Based on their researches, this study analyses the origin and development of UK higher education tuition, and examines the policy outcomes. The study finds that, although Blair's education policy was regarded as a failure among his "Third Way" policies, the UK's higher education has entered an unprecedented era that no previous government had achieved before. Student numbers continued to grow, and universities achieved top rankings in the world. But as the tuition continued to increase, universities have to reduce tuitions if they are to be competitive in student enrolment. Moreover, this dissertation concludes that despite the fact that the government ask students to pay off their tuition after they get a future job. the students from lower socio-economic groups still cannot get equal access to higher education due to their family backgrounds, their prior education in middle school, as well as less opportunity to attend the Russell Group universities. In addition, as more students are entering higher education, the student-to-staff ratio increased rapidly and thus students may have shorter contact hours with the teachers. Part-time instructors are increasing, so it is hard to maintain teaching quality. In terms of research quality, research funds mainly go to Russell Group universities, but aside from Oxbridge, the remaining universities in the Russell Group are outperformed by many HEIs around the globe. These are all issues generated from high tuition fees that the UK policy makers need to re-examine.This study is significant because it provides an overall analysis and evaluation of the British higher education tuition issue, using statistics from the government as well as theories from scholars. China can also draw lessons from the UK's tuition policies and plan better for its future funding programmes.