As some of the biggest brains in academia establish a for-profit higher education institution, Kate Whiting asks AC Grayling, pictured below, whether this is the beginning of the end for affordable education.

AS future scholars of Anthony Clifford – AC – Grayling’s for-profit college will no doubt learn, Oscar Wilde famously said the only thing worse than being talked about is not being talked about.

The acclaimed philosopher may well be pondering whether or not this is true this week, after his plans for a private higher education institution were widely panned by academics and the left-leaning media.

The New College of the Humanities (NCH) will open for business in London’s bookish Bloomsbury in September next year, offering a holistic approach to education for students of philosophy, history, literature, law and economics – and a chance to hear the likes of Richard Dawkins and Niall Ferguson – in exchange for £18,000 a year.

It’s going to be funded by £10m of private investment, and each of the 14 super-don visiting professors will have shares in the enterprise.

Mr Grayling’s timing is uncanny, as his announcement coincided with a report from the Public Accounts Committee of MPs that the Government will be several hundred million pounds out of pocket because many more universities than expected are planning to charge the maximum tuition fee of £9,000.

Because the cost will come out of the public purse in the first instance, before being recouped via student loans, strict quotas on student numbers may have to be introduced.

Mr Grayling says the NCH is a direct response to the scrapping of funding for arts and humanities by the Lib-Con coalition.

“We have an honourable, long-standing tradition in this country of wanting to see education as a public good, paid for by everybody.

That’s an ideal I signed up for, but tragically it’s not the case,” he says. “So you’ve got two options: stand on the sidelines and complain, or do something about it.

“We’re trying to see whether it’s possible to bring resources into higher education that don’t come from the Exchequer in a careful, thoughtful and responsible way, keeping accessibility at a maximum but accepting the fact it’s got to be paid for.”

Writing in the Guardian, Terry Eagleton slated the scheme as “disgustingly elitist” and accused Grayling of “taking advantage of a crumbling university system to rake off money from the rich”.

Sally Hunt, general secretary of the University and College Union, says: “We would like to see all academics prioritising our publiclyfunded universities and campaigning for a better funding deal for them.”

Ms Hunt explains that the Government’s funding agency, the Higher Education Funding Council for England, has warned that cutthroat competition risks damaging our global reputation by allowing private ownership to compromise standards.

But Mr Grayling denies he’s jumping from a sinking ship, rather that he’s merely offering a lifeboat to humanities students and academics.

“Our chief loyalty is to those students in future who should be studying them. We all hope the public sector’s going to survive and again flourish when people change their minds about things, so it’s not a question about being in competition with anybody.

“We’re attracting criticism because people have a reflex reaction to the idea that profits and education don’t mix. But we’re trying to show that if resources are not going to come from the public purse, then can’t it be possible to bring them in from outside?”

Like the colleges at Oxbridge, Mr Grayling’s NCH will give students one-on-one tuition, but he admits this will not actually be direct contact time with the 14 “distinguished professors”.

He explains: “Every day of the academic year, one or other of these professors will be giving a lecture about something they really know about. The tutorial teaching and curriculum lectures will be delivered by our full-time staff.”

His vision of higher education is to give a “whole intellectual skill set” to students, who will take 15 modules over three years that cover their major subject, as well as applied ethics, science literacy, and logic and critical thinking.

They’ll also be prepared for the world of work with a professional skills course.

But as Ms Hunt points out, the proposed New College of the Humanities will not have university status. “It will not have its own degreeawarding powers. Students will take University of London degrees – under the university’s international programme.”

SO, is NCH the inevitable future of higher education? Ms Hunt says it doesn’t need to be. “Instead of looking to create a market within the university sector, the Government should be focusing on providing opportunities for all, not just a select few. This can only be done through increasing public funding for higher education rather than transferring costs on to students and their families.”

But she warns: “More colleges could be established using this model, and if they are charging very high fees, they will become the preserve of those from wealthy backgrounds.”

While Mr Grayling has been accused of promoting “educational apartheid”, he insists the college is taking steps to ensure equality in its admissions policy and funding structure.

In the first year of intake, some 20 per cent of students will be financially assisted. “The tension here is between excellence and accessibility,”

he says. “We’ve tried to adopt one aspect of the American model which is charging the true cost to keep the quality up, but at the same time doing everything you feasibly can to increase accessibility.

“We’re already establishing relationships with academy and comprehensive schools, and when we’re very much up and running, we’ll give closed scholarships to these places.”

Mr Grayling is also quick to point out that the state-funded system has fundamental admission weaknesses.

“The UCAS system is a rather computerised system that works on a points basis and a lot of people can slip through the cracks who are really very good quality, but who might have had hayfever during their A-levels, so we’re very interested in finding out about the individual. We’ll give scholarships to the best students, even if they only got one E.”

While the future of higher education rests in the Government’s hands, Mr Grayling believes his idea is a responsible way of dealing with the crisis.

“Between the next two to five years, we’re going to see some pretty dramatic things happening: the £9,000 fees ceiling will be ruptured, we’re going to see some universities either closing humanities provision altogether or maybe even going private, who knows.

We’re trying to respond to a problem.”