Vince Cable: soft cap or hard hat?

Vince Cable has told the Commons that he is hesitating about Lord Browne’s suggestion of no cap on tuition fees.

That could mean he comes up with a hard cap, a military helmet maybe to Lord Browne’s beret. That would bring howls of pain from many universities who are muttering that they can only break even now if they charge around £8,000 a year.

It could mean extra conditions to discourage universities going above the “soft cap” but then that could eat into the subsidies that come from surcharges on the better-off higher-charging universities. Pull one thread, one vice-chancellor said, and the garment could fall apart.
Vince Cable also unveiled a progressive crowd pleaser – penalty charges, just like you get with a mortgage, if you are wealthy enough to pay off the loan early.

But what Dr Cable didn’t go near was Labour’s assertion that the Browne review is predicated on an 80 per cent cut to the government university teaching grant. You can see the evidence for that on p.47 of the report which suggests a “minimum level of investment… ca. £700m per year.”

That figure excludes post-graduate courses, but looks to vice-chancellors like the pencilled in Teaching Grant figure from the spending round. Given that the equivalent figure was £3.9 last year that would represent an 80 per cent cut.

In his interview with me Vince Cable admits that the government is withdrawing subsidy for all courses except medicine and science. Which suggests the 80 per cent figure may not be wide of the mark.

Historical footnote: John Denham – who made the point about the 80 per cent in the Commons – is in part responsible for the Browne review. He was one of the Labour backbenchers opposing Charles Clarke’s introduction of variable tuition fees and demanded as a concession that the whole thing be looked into again in three years time to check on impact.

That was the review Labour asked Lord Browne to undertake but it’s come up with answers John Denham and his fellow Labour rebels  couldn’t have dreamt of back then.