While Margaret Thatcher was the Secretary of State for Education and Science in the 1970s, she instructed people working in independent educational institutions to:
‘never apologise for independence. It is worth stimulating and nurturing for its own sake. You do not have to justify it. It is those who wish to finish it who have to justify their case.’
If this is a tenet of the Conservative approach to education, then one might assume the lengthy period of Conservative-led governments since 2010 would have ushered in a more diverse higher education sector by stimulating more independent provision.
Yet when I entered the Department for Business, Innovation and Skills as the Special Adviser to the Minister for Universities and Science in May 2010, we found so-called ‘alternative higher education providers’ – those that did not receive funding from the old Higher Education Funding Council for England – were off the departmental radar.
