English Universities in Crisis: Markets Without Competition

Recent policies have replaced direct government funding for teaching with fees paid by students. As well as saddling graduates with enormous debt, satisfaction rates are low, a high proportion of graduates are in non-graduate jobs, and public debt from unpaid loans is rocketing. This timely and challenging analysis combines theoretical and data analysis and insights gained from running a university, to give robust new policy proposals: lower fees
reintroduce maintenance awards
impose student number caps
maintain taxpayer funding
cancel the TEF
re-build the external examiner system
restructure the contingent-repayment loan scheme
and establish different roles for different types of institutions, to encourage excellence and ultimately benefit society.