ABSTRACT
The radical restructuring of higher education funding had two aims. First, the scrapping of the teaching grant was supposed to make it easier for private higher education providers to enter the market. Second, the greater dependence on student fees was claimed to put 'students at the heart of the system' and to enhance the power of student choice. Following the policy established by New Labour, the Browne Review as well as the following White Paper Higher Education: Students at the Heart of the System primarily emphasised the private economic benefit of higher education. While the Browne Review and the White Paper 2011 intensified the policy that had been established under New Labour and framed higher education within a discourse structured by the nodal points 'choice', 'competition', 'quality', and 'private economic benefit', they also put great emphasis on another concept that had not been central before: 'the student experience'.
