Putting the department’s higher education policy research at the heart of the national tuition fee debate

With the recently announced review of post-18 education, questions of fees and funding for undergraduates and the provision of technical qualifications are back on the political agenda in England and the UK more widely. Dr Helen Carasso, pathway convenor for the MSc Education (HE), was invited to contribute to that debate, as an expert witness for the Treasury Committee’s Review of Student Loans, and has since outlined the key issues facing the review panel on The Conversation website (co-authored with Dr Andrew Gunn of the University of Leeds).

Helen first studied undergraduate fees and funding and their impacts on universities for her DPhil, which she completed in 2010. She continues to research the marketisation of higher education and its impacts on student choice, in the context of wider policy debates.