ABSTRACT
This chapter argues that the proposed new fee regime is tied to previous government's policies on higher education, and that the deficit problem is not the only driver for the new fee regime. International competitiveness also plays a significant part in the provision of world class research that drives the knowledge economy. The New Labour government introduced a student contribution to their higher education fees may have been controversial at the time, but this move certainly reflected the New Labour approach. The Browne Review or, what it was formally called, the Independent Review of Higher Education Funding and Student Finance were set up to find solutions to the continued problem of higher education funding. Although the trend towards students bearing the costs of their tuition has had a long history, the credit crunch and ensuing recession certainly exacerbated the problem of higher education financing. Research findings in this area, from studies conducted both in the UK and internationally are conflicted.
