In the world of education and politics more broadly, we are all used to seeing politicians making major announcements and getting plenty of media coverage as a result. That makes it even more noteworthy when a politician gets plenty of media coverage for announcing that they don’t actually have a policy at all. 

And so it was that Keir Starmer, leader of the Labour Party, found himself hitting the headlines at the start of May for announcing that he had ditched their longstanding commitment to abolish university tuition fees in England, saying it was necessary to “move on” from the idea because of the economic situation facing the country. 

So how did Labour end up here? Was Keir Starmer’s announcement a surprise or simply a political inevitability? Do current and future students actually want Labour to scrap tuition fees? And where should the Labour Party go next after abandoning their previous plans? 

Our guests today are Debbie McVitty, the editor of Wonkhe – a higher education news site, and Gordon McKenzie, the CEO of GuildHE - which represents 60 smaller specialist universities and colleges.

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