A student at a March 2004 against university top-up fees. Photograph: Ian Waldie/Getty Images
A year and a half ago, top-up fees nearly crippled Tony Blair's government when backbenchers rebelled and the controversial bill to introduce them squeezed through by just five votes. Now, the real hard work has begun and the government and universities are attempting to explain the complex new package of fees, grants and loans to the generation of students who will from September 2006 have to pay and apply for them.
Yesterday Universities UK, which represents university vice-chancellors, got a panel of experts in front of 20-odd journalists and it took them an hour to explain the whole package. We've condensed that explanation into a thousand words here .
Now the government, Universities UK and the National Union of Students are launching a joint information campaign to sell the package. The NUS's collaboration on this is a little controversial, seeing as they still officially oppose any fees at all. Expect TV adverts and radio jingles in the autumn.
The government is selling the new package on the merits of fees being paid after you graduate, rather than on the first day of term, and also the introduction of new £2,700 grants for the poorest students, but today's headlines are not going to make those thinking of applying feel any more comfortable. The whole package means that as graduates the class of 2006 will be a third more in debt at an average of £15,000 it will take them up to 15 years rather than the current seven to pay it off.
