If you accept the idea of tuition fees as a principle, and I know many people here don't, then its like this..

£9K per annum gets you pot luck. £18K per annum gets you exposed to ides and theories espoused by some of today's most exciting theorists.

More to the point, there are degrees and there are degrees. In the fields these guys are specialising in, such a degree will look good on the old CV and that, in case nobody notices, is the point in the first place.

Harmonic Miner says that if you are gifted, it doesn't matter where you study. I cannot disagree more. Clever kids being held back in sink schools who then never get a chance to realise their potential? A good teacher in such a school who many people look back on with affection because that person helped instil in them the idea of getting on in life, and in many cases helped persuade parents that their offspring is capable of getting to university after all.

A good university will bring out the best in a young person, and from what I read of this one, relevant employers will like to see it on a CV.