TONY BLAIR

His first education reforms in higher education resulted in increased funding for universities and a comparatively large increase in access to university education. This was controversial. Critics on the left objected to the introduction for the first time of student fees to pay part of the cost of higher education. Critics on the right argued that the increase in student numbers implied a lowering of educational standards. In 1998, one of Mr Blair’s first and most radical education reforms came in the form of means testing, and many university students in the U.K. paid tuition fees for the first time. 


My concern here is with the increase in student numbers, facilitated by colleges becoming universities. Did this actually lower standards in order that more people should acquire higher qualifications?

A Continuing debate: