Was?
Yup, he's now unemployed
.
I am a big advocate of grammar schools, solely responsible from taking my dad from a two-up two-down in Sutton-in-Ashfield to a very successful career in aerospace engineering. The problem at the moment is that they are too few and far between. Consequently middle class folks see them as a cut-price private school education, flood the catchment areas, pay for tuition and you basically have the very opposite of social mobility. If they were more common, this would not be the case.
Tuition fees on the other hand, I am a fan of keeping. If you look at the Scotland model, it isn't improving standards, nor is it widening participation. What they are finding is that numbers of places in Higher Education are being squeezed and more overseas students are being taken because the universities have a funding gap that they need to fill.
For me, the problem with Tuition Fees is that they are badged all wrong, they don't share many of the features of debt, but labelling them as such is off-putting to many from poorer backgrounds. If you badged them as what they are, a tax which only kicks in once you start earning decent money, then I think people would be less put off.
Incidentally, I'll be finished paying mine off in less than 12 months.