ABSTRACT
Following the election victory of the Conservatives in 1979, the new political outlook could soon be felt in higher education as public funding for higher education was cut so severely that some higher education institutions came close to bankruptcy. Within the strong economic rationale that underlay Thatcherite policies, higher education was thus increasingly opened to non-traditional students both in terms of age and qualifications. Following the principles of New Public Management, which meant that private-sector management techniques were increasingly applied to the public services in order to achieve cost effectiveness and value for money, higher education governance and funding were radically transformed. For the students, one of the most fundamental reforms of the Thatcher era was the substitution of parts of the maintenance grants, as introduced after the Anderson Report, with loans. Loans were also perceived as an instrument to actively change how students understood themselves and the purpose of higher education.
