Higher Education Act 2004 - Background and Political Importance

Background and Political Importance

Until 1998, all education in the United Kingdom was free up to and including university courses. However, shortly after coming to power, the Labour Party under Prime Minister Tony Blair abolished the student maintenance grant system and introduced an up-front fee fixed at just over £1,000 per year for all university students. Up to a quarter of this fee was waived for the poorest students, but many maintained that education should remain a free public service, and that the system would place students in unnecessary levels of debt. The government, however, insisted that fees were the best means of providing university funding. At the same time, they stated that their aim was to increase the proportion of students going on to Higher Education to 50% by 2010.

In the years that followed, it became clear that the original fixed fees of around £1,000 per year were still not providing enough funding, leading to proposals of what are often referred to as top-up fees. The idea was that universities would be able to "top up" the fees to a level that more accurately reflected the funding they needed. However, widespread protests led the Labour Party to make a manifesto pledge at the 2001 general election not to introduce such a system.

In 2003, a new set of proposals was drafted, which were denounced by some as breaking that promise. Although the government tried to create a compromise that would raise the necessary funds in a fair way, the issue remained highly contentious. Despite vocal opposition within his own party, Tony Blair claimed that this proposal was the only way to secure the necessary funds, and the issue was seen as a key test of his leadership. The initial vote in the House of Commons, on 27 January 2004, came a day before the result of the Hutton Inquiry, and it was predicted that a bad result from one or both would lead to Blair's resignation as Prime Minister. The Bill was passed at the first vote, known as second reading, by 316 votes to 311, with 71 Labour MPs voting against.

The Bill faced further opposition as it progressed through Parliament. There was some controversy regarding the appointment of mainly loyalist MPs to the Standing Committee assigned to review the Bill. Of the 16 Labour MPs on the committee, only one voted against the government at second reading, and one abstained, suggesting that little criticism was likely during this stage. It then returned to the floor of the Commons for the Report stage. The main opposition to the bill from Labour backbenchers concerned the "variable" or "top-up" fees, therefore an amendment tabled at Report stage to remove references to these variable fees appeared to have some chance of succeeding. In addition, some backbenchers were promised further concessions and changes to the Bill, and therefore voted in favour at the second reading. If these promises had been felt to have been broken, these members might well have vote against the Bill at third reading.

Additionally, if the Bill had been successfully passed at third reading, it would have moved to the House of Lords, where the Government did not have a majority, and where for this particular Bill, the Salisbury Convention – according to which legislation included in the manifesto of the ruling party should not be opposed – would not have applied. This is because the policy was not included in the Labour party manifesto in 2001 – and some would argue it went against the line reading "We will not introduce top-up fees and have legislated to prevent them". Therefore, it is quite possible that the Lords would have rejected the bill outright, which would have meant that the government would have had to table the Bill again in the next session of Parliament, and would possibly have had to use the Parliament Acts 1911 and 1949 in order to force it through Parliament and gain Royal Assent. Alternatively, the Lords could have passed a "wrecking amendment" which would have needed to be reversed by the House of Commons.