As a young journalist at the turn of the millennium, I reported on generational changes to higher education funding. What struck me most clearly at the time was how the entire process was driven by political expediency rather than educational need.

New Labour had been elected on a landslide in 1997, promising to introduce tuition fees for university students.

As the number of school leavers going to university soared, from around 14% in 1980 to close to 50% two decades later, it was felt that the cost burden of teaching such large numbers of students could no longer be sustained by the public purse.

A committee of inquiry, chaired by Lord Dearing – Sir Ron Garrick in Scotland – recommended that students should be obliged to pay, at least part of, the cost of their tuition. Student grants had already been replaced with loans, and it seemed sensible and appropriate that the cost of tuition fees could be repaid in the same way.

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Scottish Labour contested the first election to the Scottish Parliament in 1999, committed to enacting Sir Ron’s recommendation that Scottish students should pay £3,000 over the course of a four-year degree. English students studying at Scottish universities would pay £4,000.

However, to be able to form the first Scottish government – then called the Executive – the party had to agree a coalition deal with the Scottish Liberal Democrats, who were implaccably opposed to tuition fees.

Both parties were itching for power, but the problem remained intractable. How would the circle be squared, without one of them caving in on, not only a flagship policy, but a deeply held point of principal, for both?

For weeks after the election,........

© Herald Scotland