Has private university provision been halted?

The coalition government is set to shelve plans that would have allowed for the biggest shake-up of degree-providing institutions in the UK since the conversion of former polytechnics in 1992.

The Higher Education Bill would have relaxed regulation that prevents private colleges from forming new universities in the UK. Its defeat is being triumphed as a victory for pragmatism over ideology, with private colleges in the US being linked to high levels of student loan default and subsequent bankruptcy.

Andy Westwood of Guild HE says that the decision is purely political, claiming that such a bill "offers the opportunity for every critic in parliament, the media and the sector, to dig up the whole reform story again and to scrutinise every detailed change going back to Browne. And all this for relatively few further changes to higher education".

With American student debt set to reach $1 trillion in the coming decade, it is a situation that counterparts in the UK appear desperate to avoid.

Read the full story on Guardian Higher Education