This commentary compares the university funding of Labour, the Conservatives and the Liberal Democrats. These policies have important implications for students, graduates, universities and taxpayers.

A new briefing note published by the IFS analyses the latest government HE reforms, some of which was voted on in the House of Commons on Tuesday 27 January 2004.

The Government's plans for reforming Higher Education (HE) funding have been a source of great controversy. Much of this controversy has been focused on what the reforms will mean for students from different family income backgrounds, and on the levels of debt they may need to incur to go to higher education. Concern has also been raised about how graduates will be affected by these debt repayments throughout their working lives, as well as whether or not the funds raised will improve the situation of universities significantly. This Briefing Note addresses these issues, as well as describing the evolution of the proposed reforms to Higher Education funding in recent months. In doing this, we set out and explain the system which is most likely to be implemented if the HE Bill is passed, and discuss the ways in which students, graduates, and universities are likely to be affected. We also consider the possible effects on the taxpayer.

IFS produced an article for the Evening Standard on Thursday 4th December which contained some figures relating to the tuition fee debate. This note explains how the figures in that article were calculated.

In this commentary, IFS compares the reforms proposed by the two parties, looking at the effect on student and graduate finances, the distributional impact on households with different incomes, and the cost to the Exchequer and taxpayers in general.