The National Committee of Enquiry into Higher Education (The Dearing Report), 1997

Cited as the most comprehensive enquiry into HE since the 1963 Robbins Report, with almost 100 recommendations which continue to influence government policy:

a public and private mix to fund HE, including students contributing c 25% towards tuition costs, but retaining maintenance grants
strategic focus on widening participation and government prioritising allocation of funds to institutions committing to this
acknowledge the ‘private’ and ‘social’ rates of return for participants and society, and the importance of HEIs in economic growth and knowledge exchange
a post-qualification system of student admission, which remains topical over 20 years later
credit transfer arrangements to facilitate mobility between institutions
learning and teaching strategies and the professional development and accreditation of academic staff which led to the development of the predecessor bodies to Advance HE
to reduce the size of governing bodies of the pre-1992 universities to no more than 25 members, and the professionalization of their corporate governance.

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