The Higher Education White Paper is a good start at introducing real competition between universities for academic places

The Higher Education White Paper, released today, proposes to make student 85,000 places ‘contestable’ between universities over the next two years, allow institutions to take on more high achieving A-level students, and create up to 20,000 places for universities that charge a yearly fee of less than £7,500. Tim Leunig welcomes the White Paper and its proposals, but argues that the proposed changes will do little to improve access to and the quality of, the student experience. ‘Real’ competition is needed.