The former universities minister says the sector’s financial crisis will worsen unless ministers get on with legislating for annual fee rises. But 10 years on from introducing the Higher Education and Research Act, he tells Jack Grove that it is right to put the student interest front and centre in a high-fees era

Music is among a number of subjects in which vocational provision now dwarfs scholarly approaches. But the latter must be preserved, and grouping scholarship-focused students in fewer departments could be the best way to achieve that. Ian Pace twiddles the knobs