Conservative government scrapped polytechnics and made them as universities in early 90s which was a big mistake.
British higher education system was heavily relied on fees from oversea students.
However, the economic crisis in mid 90s had a massive impact on the foreign students, the government decided to introduce university tuition fee from home students.
University tuition fee could have been introduced earlier.
Britain used to have the biggest market in education sector in Europe, but ridiculous new visa system only drives away promising students from non-EU countries.