Universities



Until 1998 the majority of University funding came from central government. In 1998 the then Labour government introduced tuition fees at a maximum of £1000 per year. In England, in 2006, the maximum fee rose to £3000 per year and in 2009/10 the maximum fee was raised to £3250 in line with inflation. In the 2010 General Election the Lib Dems stood on a platform of ending tuition fees, which caused a massive boost in their votes, particularly amongst the young. In 2010 the Conservative / Lib Dem coalition nearly tripled the maximum tuition fee in England that a university could charge to £9000 per year.

Following devolution in 1999, the newly devolved governments in Scotland and Wales brought in their own acts on tuition fees. The Scottish Parliament established, and later abolished a graduate endowment to replace the fees.[9] Wales introduced maintenance grants of up to £1,500 in 2002, a value which has since risen to over £5000