Office for Fair Access

At the time this policy was being debated there was considerable concern that the amount of debt new graduates would be faced with could dissuade some potential students from entering higher education altogether.

For the academic year starting September 2012, the amount that institutions could charge increased to £9,000, subject to approval by the Director of Fair Access to Higher Education.

Charges often made against OFFA were that it levelled down standards rather than raising them[4][5] and that it replaced one form of unfairness with another as reforms were being achieved by "disadvantaging" the brightest children.

[6] At the time of its foundation, one member of the then shadow cabinet called OFFA “an interfering, manipulative, corrosive emblem of political correctness.

[7] At the time of its closure, the outgoing director rebuked this criticism and noted that for the period of OFFA's existence, there had been an 82% increase in the higher education participation of disadvantaged areas.