Tories may go for growth

The Conservatives are to launch a review of higher education policy in a bid to better engage with academics and with the ever-growing student body.

The review will be wide-ranging and will cover funding, expansion and diversity. It is likely to raise questions about whether the cap on top-up fees should be lifted before 2010.

David Willetts, the Shadow Education Secretary, said that he had recently met with Russell Group vice-chancellors who argued that the cap of £3,000 on university fees was damaging their ability to compete globally.

Although he refused to say whether he was sympathetic to their view, Mr Willetts did say that this was one of the areas that the review would need to consider.

He added: "What I want to stress is that this review will start from scratch. We may not choose to build on the current system."

It is a far cry from the Conservative Party manifesto for the 2005 general election, in which it firmly opposed the introduction of £3,000 top-up fees.

David Cameron, Tory leader, abandoned the Conservatives' opposition to top-up fees, acknowledging the need for "co-payment".

Boris Johnson, the Shadow Higher Education Minister, said: "We also need to look at our attitude to expansion. In the past we have focused too much on Mickey Mouse degrees and quality concerns.

"I am a great believer in higher education as an empowering and enriching thing," Mr Johnson said. "The history of higher education over the past century is the story of the expansion of the British middle class. It is something to be welcomed."

Mr Willetts, who is seen as one of the key thinkers in Mr Cameron's team, said: "It was under the Conservatives that expansion took place and polytechnics converted to universities. This opened up opportunities for thousands of people, but the Conservatives have always been divided on the value of expansion and so never benefited from it politically."

Both Mr Willetts and Mr Johnson sought to distance themselves from a paper released this year by the Tory Cornerstone group of MPs in which they argue that expansion has gone too far.

Echoing a speech by Education Secretary Ruth Kelly on social mobility at the Institute of Public Policy Research, Mr Johnson also stressed that the education system must facilitate social mobility.

"There has been a closing down of opportunity in recent years. The expansion of higher education has benefited the middle class - not poorer students," Mr Johnson said. He argued that improvements had to happen in the school system, in particular in the teaching of science.

The review will run alongside the work of the six main policy groups set up by Mr Cameron in November 2005. The policy groups are to produce state of the nation reports by this June and propose solutions by July 2007.

claire.sanders@thes.co.uk

WHAT SHOULD BE IN THE REVIEW?

* David Watson, a professor at the Institute of Education and author of Ends without Means: The Conservative Stewardship of UK Higher Education, 1979-1997 "First and foremost, the review should build on the extensive research already undertaken. Second, the fact that Conservatives have finally embraced expansion means that they can now get serious about funding. And, yes, that is likely to push the issue of the cap on fees to the top of the agenda. Finally, they will need to get serious about how to support poor students and poor institutions in a more fee-driven market."

* Patrick Minford, professor at Cardiff Business School and former adviser to the Thatcher and Major governments "There are all sorts of problems in higher education - but not much of an alternative to going for more of it. The debate on lifting the cap on fees needs to start as soon as possible as the situation is untenable. It is disgraceful that we are so reliant on the fees of overseas students and are starving the home market."

* A spokesman for Universities UK "We welcome the Conservative Party's review - especially given its indication that the policy will include support for variable tuition fees. There are a number of challenges that remain to be addressed in terms of higher education policy. We have met the frontbench team and look forward to working with them as they develop their position."

* Bahram Bekhradnia, director of the Higher Education Policy Institute "This review is greatly to be welcomed. Previous Conservative policies on higher education have been simply untenable. But they cannot be allowed to get away with saying they engineered expansion. Their ambivalent attitude to growth meant that they never developed policies to pay for it. This is what they must now address."