it is interesting how the LibDems can promise the earth when they have no chance of trying to deliver... I assume this absurd climbdown will make them think twice about raising peoples' hopes up with undeliverable promises come the next election. No? thought not.

I am rather lucky in that I am of an age when higher education was cheap, even though I served an apprenticeship and had my HND paid for by The National Coal Board (AMEME (hons).

Ironically, the academic things I did afterwards I paid for fully myself, both my MBA and my PhD. (The PhD was funded by a collection of companies, mine included.) So in terms of personal experience, I never had to scrape to start a career after education. My youngest however has just finished his Masters, having now spent 6 years at uni'. if it wasn't for me paying, and luckily, I can do so, he would have been saddled with thousands and thousands of debt. Under the new proposals, that would have been a few thousand more...

My only dissent to the general consensus on this thread is that the last government decided that university was the preferred option for all young people to aspire to, yet other ways of education such as apprenticeships and less academic training was looked down on. That was a mistake. A big one. My eldest did a similar 5 year apprenticeship to me, in mining, and is now a director of a company with all the opportunity and lifestyle that offers. Again like me, he prefers to employ his engineers from the ranks of tech colleges rather than universities. the overall useful knowledge is still there, but with the advantage of knowing how to hold a spanner. Quite.

For me, the PhD was useful when I was in business, but now, the only qualification of use is my MBA, not for telling me how to think, but letting on to how others think and for that, it is most useful. My point being that university for university sake is not an answer but to aid a career with a coherent qualification is the best option. if a university can offer that, fine, but young people should be encouraged to look at other options, and employers should join the debate...