Parliamentary Committee on University Fees
In June 2026, there was a parliamentary inquiry on University Fees and I sent the email below to all members of the committee. Within seconds I received an automatic response from each of them stating that unless I was living within their own Parliamentary constituency, I would not get a response. I do not know whether any committee members read my letter!
02.06.2026
Dear Members of the Parliamentary Committee on University Fees.
I realise that I am too late to make a formal submission to your enquiry, however I feel so strongly about the current situation that I am writing collectively to all of you. I do feel qualified to provide information relevant to this subject as I have spent my academic life involved with Leicester, Bristol, Sussex and Cambridge University. My web site is malcolmmackley.com
- I was fortunate enough to pay no fees for my own university education and later, considered this to be a privilege with certain responsibilities to subsequently contribute in some way to my country.
- In 1989 the allocation of Government funding by the UGC (University Grant Committee) was disbanded.
- In the 1990s Prime Minister Tony Blair wanted 60% of the UK population to go to go to University and this resulted in a proliferation of Polytechnics becoming Universities.
- In 1998 University Fees were introduced. (In my opinion as a way of getting university funding ‘off the Government books’ because at the time there was a UK ‘financial crisis’).
- Since then there has been a progressive move towards students being expected to pay for their own education.
- In 2010 the ‘Lord Browne report’ resulted, (in my opinion totally wrongly) in a further significant increase in fees.
- Since then, UK finances have remained in a very poor shape and the Governments (of all colours) felt unable to help English university funding. Currently Scottish universities are fully funded by the state and French university students (including top engineering schools), pay around 1000 euros/annum).
- The bottom line is that English university funding has slipped into a situation where the UK is not able to find the money to support English students at university level and this is having very damaging consequences on both students and the whole UK economy.
I realise that the UK government is in a very difficult position, however just as primary and secondary education is crucial to any current society; university education is also strategically important, and all governments need to realise this by contributing to higher education, rather than putting the cost onto our own students. A UK student annual fee of between £ 1-2k is acceptable, however a compound interest annual fee (tax) of £50k/annum is ridiculous!
Yours sincerely
Malcolm Mackley
