A better class of students

Participation in higher education has risen dramatically since Lord Lionel Robbins, Sir Ron Dearing’s predecessor, completed his review in 1963. In those days about 5 per cent of UK school-leavers went to university. When Sir Ron published his report in July, that figure had risen above 30 per cent. The increase is a triumph of the welfare state; society would be impoverished, economically and culturally, without that expansion.