[TheOtherHobbes]

What's your source for this? The HESA stats at

https://www.hesa.ac.uk/pis/urg

suggest there was a slight increase in the percentage of lower-middle and working class students in 2012/13, but this was set against a drop in total UK student numbers of around 6%.

Those are the most recent numbers I can find. They don't break out the details.

>If tuition is funded by the government then this will force those without a university education to subsidise those who do go to university.

There's absolutely no reason why this would have to be true. There are plenty of other possible income sources, not least a much less tolerant attitude to off-shore tax avoidance, raised property taxes and the removal of loopholes that support tax-exempt foreign trusts, and taxes on quick-flip investment speculation.

The UK is actually swimming in cash. It's just not very evenly distributed.