The economic fee fallacy

I hope I may be forgiven if I return to an old and favourite theme: the fees charged and about to be charged to overseas students in Britain for higher education. My excuse for doing so is that Ministers do exactly the same; perhaps because of a guilty conscience, or perhaps because they have a sneaking feeling that there is a gap of logic in the reasoning behind their policies which they cannot quite pinpoint. Thus the Parliamentary Secretary at DES, Dr. Boyson, recently justified the Government's policies on charging so‐called ‘economic fees’ from next September with the argument that the growth in overseas students in the 1970s was equivalent to the provision of three middle‐sized universities. Since he was addressing the National Union of Students it is doubtful if the argument cut much ice, but it is worth examination nonetheless.