Today, the starting pistol is fired on the biggest change to higher education funding since 2012.
The innocuous-sounding Lifelong Learning (Higher Education Fee Limits) Bill is a short, technical, instrument with almost no policy in it.
That we are going to see a Second Reading debate in the House of Commons (that’s the one that is supposed to cover the main principles of the bill) on a skeleton bill. While we still wait for the results of the consultation – launched a year ago today – that sets out the main principles of the Lifelong Loan Entitlement the Bill is supposed to bring about. It is as depressing as it is typical.
Other than offering us the chance to do a shot every time a minister says “in due course”, the debate – and thus this important piece of parliamentary scrutiny – will be a spectacular waste of everyone’s time. Opposition MPs will vote in favour (how can you vote against “lifelong learning”?) and on the wheel spins.
