The price of higher education

How rational is British tuition fee policy

Dados Bibliográficos

ID4865490
AutoresBrian Miller (0000-0003-3841-878X, University of Gloucestershire, autor correspondente)
Ano2010
Volume32
Fascículo1
Páginas85-95
Data de publicação2010-01-08
Peer ReviewedSim
Open AccessNão
TipoARTICLE
PeriódicoJournal of Higher Education Policy and Management (JOURNAL)
Identificadores do periódicoISSN: 1360-080X • E-ISSN: 1469-9508
EditoraInforma UK Limited (PUBLISHER • GB)
DOI10.1080/13600800903440576
OpenAlexW2025976318
IdiomaEN
Citações recebidas4
Referências citadas11

This article examines the introduction of variable tuition fees for university students in the UK – an initiative that has become totemic in British higher education policy. The article seeks to identify the origin of this policy, using the work of Michael Oakeshott (1962 Oakeshott, M. 1962. Rationalism in politics and other essays, London: Methuen and Co. [Google Scholar]) as a framework for discussing the rationality of new Labour. The rhetoric of the government during the passage of the 2004 Higher Education Act is analysed to identify the extent to which rationalism is demonstrated in the policy-making process and this is contrasted with Oakeshott's conception of policy as evolution. The article concludes that variable tuition fees resulted from a process of conservative evolution, notwithstanding rhetoric of rationality, and discusses the implications of this for the future direction of British higher education policy

Economics · Education policy · Epistemology · Government (linguistics · Higher education · Higher education policy · Political science · Politics · Positive economics · Rationalism · Rationality · Rhetoric · Sociology · Work (physics · Global Educational Policies and Reforms · Higher Education Governance and Development · Higher Education Learning Practices · Law · Philosophy · Public Administration