*CGHE event* The Dearing Report 25 years on: Student loan reform in UK - Did it work?
25 years ago the Dearing Report suggested a series of fundamental reforms to higher education in the U.K. Among its 93 recommendations the most controversial was that students should pay a contribution towards their undergraduate degrees with the use of a loan in which repayments take the form of a percentage of the borrower’s subsequent earnings, ideally collected each week or month as a payroll deduction alongside income tax and social security contributions. This recommendation was underpinned by a set of economic principles, with claims that it would lead to greater efficiency and equity. Income contingent tuition loans were eventually implemented in England by the Blair Labour government in 2006 and subsequently reworked by the Coalition (Conservative/Liberal Democrat) government in 2012. The four nations of the U.K diverged: Scotland decided not to charge students, and Wales and Northern Ireland established modified parallels to the English system.

Certainly the reform facilitated a major increase in access to higher education, as was Dearing’s intent. However, the economic and political realities of implementing and sustaining the reform have proved challenging. Given that other countries use a variety of higher education fee and loan systems, this is an opportune time to look back on this social policy and ask both what have been the benefits and why not all that was promised came to pass. With speakers who include some who advised Dearing, we discuss: the underpinning economic theory behind the reforms; how the reforms unfolded in practice; their positive and negative impacts; and what the implications are for future policy development.

View the programme here: www.researchcghe.org/events/public-event/the-dearing-report-25-years-on-student-loan-reform-in-uk-did-it-work

Register in to attend in person: docs.google.com/forms/d/e/1FAIpQLSc_ljvLimk4bWZNFJf6_hcbb9wncMDarDbXoveCnOnk5mWAuQ/viewform

Register to attend online: zoom.us/meeting/register/tJItce6prTwiGdMUr-mofUT-Zfh5P24u-ZD9
Date: 4 November 2022, 13:00 (Friday, 4th week, Michaelmas 2022)
Venue: Room 802, Institute of Education, Bedford Way, London WC1H 0AL
Speakers: Nicholas Barr (LSE), Professor Claire Callender (University College London), Bruce Chapman (Australian National University), Charles Clarke (Charles Clarke), Professor Lorraine Dearden (University College London), Professor Simon Marginson (University of Oxford), Dr Gill Wyness (University College London)
Organiser contact email address: mary.bowen-perkins@education.ox.ac.uk
Booking required?: Required
Booking url: https://www.researchcghe.org/events/public-event/the-dearing-report-25-years-on-student-loan-reform-in-uk-did-it-work/
Cost: Free
Audience: Public
Editors: Carolyn Fray, Heather Sherkunov