I'm disappointed. Not at the unsurprising decision of Imperial College to try and charge £9,000 fees, but that they failed to show any imagination by doing something different.

Imperial is the first university in England to formally announce that they intend to charge £9,000 fees. Coming just days after Oxbridge said "we're thinking about it" and Clegg having a hissy fit, the press release amounts to Imperial waving its hands in the air and yelling:

"Me too! Me too! Helllooooo? Look at me! I'm a good university too!"

I was hoping for better. Imperial is an excellent university, but it has a couple of disadvantages in the "me too" game: it is 800 years and several billion pounds in endowments behind. When you're so far behind, you need to create your own advantage. Imperial will never be able to offer the Oxbridge experience - not without bumping off some rich alumni and moving to the Kent countryside, at least - but it could have stood out from the crowd. Rather than playing up to the evil, money-grabbing image which it has amongst students, it could have said:

"We want to take the best people, whatever their background, and give them a world-class education".

To do this, it could have announced a desire to charge less than £9,000, sending a principled message that Imperial doesn't care about the size of a student's wallet, just about their capacity to succeed. In doing so it would set itself apart from the rest. It would have to make up the money somewhere, but would have had a huge window of publicity with which to bring in money from both alumni and donors who believed in access to the best education for everyone able to make use of it. Who knows, maybe future graduates would look a bit more kindly towards the place, and give a bit more back? There is a nice side, lurking under the brutal, department-slashing exterior.

Devaluation

Of course, there's a massive spanner in the works - and it isn't just making up the money. As the Cambridge review said, there's a risk of devaluing the brand. If you don't charge full price, people will start to ask why. Nobody wants to be the 'budget' university, which is why even institutions lingering at the bottom of the league tables feel the need to charge £3,000 at the moment. This is the real fallacy with the marketisation of higher education - it just doesn't work. Dropping the price below your competitors trashes your credibility as an academic institution.

It isn't just fees that are the issue - studying in London is astonishingly expensive, particularly Imperial halls. Given Oxford, Cambridge or Imperial at £9,000 per year, Imperial will be far the most expensive: a 4-year integrated Master's and London accommodation prices vs. a 3-year BA (with MA for £10) and Cambridge accommodation means there's no contest. Despite this, Imperial wouldn't be able to lower the headline rate to compensate, even if it was financially viable.

No top university can afford the risk to their brand of charging anything other than £9,000.

Heed the warnings

Finally of course, there's Nick "I get to choose how much they charge" Clegg. Not sure which planet he's living on, but it isn't this one. The fact is, if Cambridge isn't allowed to charge £9,000, nobody will. Who would go to another university for £9k if they could go to Cambridge for £6k? And once you've let Cambridge do it, you're letting all of the top universities do it. Can you imagine the cries of elitism if only Oxbridge were able to charge £9k?

π in the Sky

So, what have we established? It isn't possible to differentiate on price, even when the cost of living is different, because doing so causes a reputational disadvantage in the very market that successive governments have been trying to introduce. If they could, they can't afford to because fees must take place of teaching grants.

Which is a shame, because I'd like my alma mater to run through the streets shouting "come, all who are able, come stand on the shoulders of giants". Instead, it will just run behind, embarrassingly shouting "me too" whenever it can, while stuffing money down its trousers.

P.S. Usually, when I get upset about Imperial money-grabbing, I get a letter through in short order asking me, as a valued alumnus, to donate some money. I'm sure one will arrive soon. Show me a package which ensures anyone who is able can go to Imperial, then I'll think about it...