A five-year freeze of undergraduate tuition fees in England and a promise to tackle ¡°low value¡± degree courses by restricting access to student loans are among the options under consideration for the Conservatives¡¯ general election manifesto, Times Higher Education understands.

Plans to lower annual tuition fees from ?9,250 to ?7,500 ¨C in line with the Augar review¡¯s recommendations ¨C seem unlikely to become Tory election pledges despite renewed interest in the panel¡¯s proposals. Last week, several Augar panel members visited Downing Street to discuss the fee reduction plan, which Universities?UK claims could institutions up to ?2.4?billion a?year in lost income.

Instead of a tuition fee cut ¨C strongly opposed by Chris Skidmore, the universities minister, and by his predecessor, Jo Johnson ¨C the manifesto is more likely to include a pledge to freeze undergraduate tuition fees until 2025, THE understands.

However, the manifesto might include other proposals from the Augar review, such as calling for action on ¡°low value higher education¡± that fails to reward graduates with an earnings premium.

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¡°The Augar proposals are definitely not dead,¡± a Whitehall source told THE, adding that the manifesto might include recommendations to ¡°¡®ensure value for money¡¯ for students¡±. That might, for example, mean using Longitudinal Education Outcomes (LEO) data, based on tax records, to limit access to student loans for some university courses ¨C implementing the Augar review¡¯s recommendation that ¡°bearing down on low value HE¡± should be a priority for the government.

Other policies from the Augar review ¨C including scrapping or reducing in-study interest payments, and providing more support for post-18 technical education ¨C are believed to be under consideration. This agenda is being driven, some suggest, by Rachel Wolf, a former education adviser to David Cameron and former adviser to Boris Johnson as shadow higher education minister, who is co-authoring the Conservative manifesto. Ms Wolf is the daughter of Baroness Wolf, a member of the Augar panel who is professor of public sector management at King¡¯s College London. ¡°It¡¯s the Wolf axis at work,¡± a source told THE.

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Nick Hillman, director of the Higher Education Policy Institute, raised questions about reviving Augar¡¯s recommendations given that they involve extending the student loan repayment period from 30 to 40 years.

¡°Adding 10 years to this repayment phase will not be very popular,¡± said Mr Hillman, who added that the ¡°politics of Augar was always going to be around that repayment period¡± in light of the growing numbers of graduates grappling with student loan debts, against a far smaller number of student voters, unlikely to vote Conservative in any case.

¡°I would like to see them do something around maintenance grants and cost of living for students, but this is so expensive,¡± said Mr Hillman, arguing that any offer in this area would have little electoral impact given ¡°the zero fees offer¡± on the table from Labour, the Scottish National Party and the Green Party.

Because of Labour¡¯s commitment to abolishing tuition fees at English universities at the 2017 general election ¨C and the totemic significance of this policy for its leader, Jeremy Corbyn ¨C there is more certainty around the party¡¯s policies on higher education funding than there is about the precise nature of the Conservatives¡¯ policies. Meanwhile, the Liberal Democrats¡¯ education spokeswoman, Layla Moran, has previously told THE that the party was ¡°moving towards¡± a?graduate tax policy and that the ?9,250 fees system ¡°definitely needs reforming¡±.

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With Dominic Cummings, a senior adviser to the prime minister, pushing for a large increase in research spending, the Tory manifesto is also likely to mention science and innovation, others have predicted.

¡°For a Conservative government that is stuck in various ways, science and research offers a chance to tell a story about progress and the future, particularly one that appeals to some places, such as university towns, where they do not traditionally do well,¡± said Jack Stilgoe, senior lecturer in social studies of science at UCL.

Compared with increasing spending in other areas, ¡°science is quite cheap and you get lots of PR bang for your buck¡±, said Dr Stilgoe, who observed that ¡°while [science] tended to be a cross-party issue, Labour has not said a?lot here, so the Tories could reclaim this as their own¡±.

However, the Conservatives were unlikely to include manifesto pledges on science funding, which ¡°can feel quite wonkish¡± and can lack wider public appeal, Dr Stilgoe suggested. ¡°I?would not expect anything beyond broad statements about ¡®making Britain the best place in the world to do science¡¯,¡± he?said.

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jack.grove@timeshighereducation.com