Why is the issue in the news again?

Mainly as a result of Jeremy Corbyn’s manifesto pledge to abolish tuition fees, and reintroduce maintenance grants; the policy was thought to be a big factor in convincing young voters to vote Labour. Since then, the hiking of student loan interest rates to 6.1%, and the revelation that English students have the highest debts in the developed world (see box), have made fees even more con tentious. Damian Green, Theresa May’s deputy, concedes that Britain may need to have a “national debate” on the subject. “Fees have become so politically diseased,” says former Labour minister Andrew Adonis, one of the scheme’s architects, “they should be abolished entirely.”

When were fees first introduced?

University tuition was free until 1998, when £1,000 fees – with generous exemptions for poorer students – were introduced to boost university budgets without raising public spending. Some warned that this would be a slippery slope… and they were right. The universities agitated hard for higher fees and, in 2006, Tony Blair’s government raised them to a maximum of £3,000. To soften the impact, students were offered government-provided loans, with repayments to be made only after graduation, through the tax system. The policy narrowly scraped through Parliament.

Did charges continue to escalate?