The UK government has announced plans to raise university tuition fees by up to $14,000 a year.

Scotland abolished tuition fees in 2000, but in the rest of Britain they are capped at about $4,800 a year. However, the coalition government plans to triple that and to cut funding to universities as it strives to slash $128bn from public expenditure over the next four years.

Students have reacted by storming the offices of the ruling Conservative Party.

Is the government shifting the burden from the state to students? Is the age of affordable education for all coming to an end? Is university education becoming a luxury or is it about time that the subsidised system was reviewed?

Inside Story discusses with guests: Sam Bowman, the head of research at the Adam Smith Institute; Chris Cook, the education correspondent at the Financial Times; and Usman Ali, the vice-president of higher education at the National Union of Students (NUS).

This episode of Inside Story aired on Friday, November 12, 2010.