"I am very impressed by the courage of both governing parties. Universities must be properly funded and I see no reasons why the students themselves should not provide the money."
Edward Turnham, Christ’s

 "It’s a nail in the coffin of social mobility, and if Cambridge has a hard time of recruiting people from ‘disadvantaged backgrounds’ they’ll find it even more difficult once potential students contemplate being at least £36,000 in debt."
Patrick Kane, King’s

"An increase in tuition fees will enable our universities to remain on a sustainable financial footing whilst creating a proper, functioning market in higher education. This will allow standards to be driven up across the board, benefiting us all in the long run."
Aaron Schroeder-Willis, Trinity

"This doesn’t reduce the deficit – it just parcels it out in smaller sums to individual students who can’t afford it. It’s the privatisation of someone else’s problem."
Doug Johnson, Fitzwilliam

"The Browne review offers a highly realistic plan for UK universities to compete with ones in the US in terms of research and scholarship funding."
Michael Youtsos, Wolfson

"In Browne’s vision, education is like oil: a commodity, bought and sold at market prices, prized for its practical utility. It’s not supposed to be that way."
Jonathan Birch, Clare

"Obviously the price-hike seems harsh. But your degree should still pay for itself in time, and if it doesn’t then maybe you shouldn’t be at university in the first place!"
David Holland, Girton

"Cambridge’s years of reaching out to state school and low-income families could be very easily undone by huge tuition fees. Cambridge might once again become the province of the rich and powerful alone, should Browne’s recommendations be followed."
Angus Morrison, Christ’s

"The government wants our universities to compete at the top level. For this it needs the most able, not the richest students, as well as adequate funding. Raising tuition fees will hinder, not help."
Laura McDonald, Queens’

"It’s upsetting that the personal cost of a degree rises with every government, while the market value continues to decline. Only 12 years ago, higher education was completely free – how dare the government lecture us about "fairness" while they strip us of the privileges they enjoyed?"
Phil McArthur, St Edmund’s

"As an international student from the Netherlands, coming to study in the UK is already a costly experience compared to tuition fees in my home country. I find it difficult to understand how any average British student would subsidise studies with even higher tuition fees. Although the recommendations in the Browne review are posed as "fair", to me they only seem to increase inequality."
Ivanka Bloom, Sidney Sussex

"While I agree with many of the coalition's ideas, with our credit rating now secure and a string of less threatening cuts in the pipeline, we must be careful not to threaten both the meritocratic integrity and high quality research our further education system provides. It would be a great shame to jeopardise something both we and the rest of the world value so highly."
Ben Richardson, Christ's

"I think the proposal to increase tuition fees is stupid and will result in even less social mobility, as well as worsening the personal debt crisis."
Joanna Costin, Christ's

"I'm concerned that massive increases in tuition fees at the most prestigious institutions will discourage prospective students from poorer background from applying to universities like Oxford and Cambridge."
Jamie Goodland, Trinity

"The consequences of lifting the cap on higher education tuition fees will be disastrous. Students from financially disadvantaged backgrounds will face even more financial, structural, and attitudinal obstacles to pursuing higher education. With the regressive system of interest payments, graduates who earn less will be forced to pay more. The Browne Review does not offer a solution. Its proposals will exacerbate existing iniquities."
Richard Johnson, Jesus

"Mixed feelings...great if poorer students get more places, but very bad for average, middle-class students who aren't eligible for government grants."
Freya Berry, Trinity

"Increasing tutition fees would in fact have a negative universities themselves. How could universities like Cambridge attract the best students if they shut out the entire lowest earning section of the population?"
Rose Hubbard, Peterhouse

"If the government no longer guarantees to loan would-be students the maximum tuition fees, meritocracy, the founding principle of capitalism, is dead- let alone an equal right to higher education."
Xavier Buxton, Peterhouse

"Much as I'd rather fees were lower, the economic situation in which Labour left the country and the basic principle that those who benefit ought to pay mean higher fees are inevitable. By assigning a certain price to education and by providing an incentive to work to pay off loans quicker, fees are better. By allowing the richest to pay the full price for their education and cross-subsidise those who cannot afford the headline rate, fees can be fair. Fees are also a much simpler and more transparent funding mechanism than a graduate tax."
Joseph Sanderson, Jesus