Theresa May risks conceding the argument to Labour on tuition fees

After last month’s purge of the Department for Education and following months of speculation among Tory MPs, No 10 have finally showed their hand on university education. The Prime Minister is to launch a year-long review of university and adult technical education. The aim is to de-toxify the party among young voters who are worried about the current levels of student debt – be it by appealing to their parents and grandparents.

On the menu of ideas being mooted are the return of university maintenance grants ( or ‘maintenance support’), lower tuition fees for courses that are cheaper to run such as arts degrees and cuts to student loan interest rates. There’s also talk of revamping vocational education and increasing the options to those who don’t wish to go to university – something which is long overdue. In a speech today in Derbyshire, May is expected to ‘acknowledge that many young people, their parents and grandparents, have serious concerns – which she shares – about aspects of the current system’.