"The proportion of graduates failing to pay back student loans is increasing at such a rate that the Treasury is approaching the point at which it will get zero financial reward from the government's policy of tripling tuition fees to £9,000 a year.

New official forecasts suggest the write-off costs have reached 45% of the £10bn in student loans made each year, all but nullifying any savings to the public purse made following the introduction of the new fee system."

(reproduced from today's Guardian)

To put it another way: poorly thought through, insufficiently costed, ideologically motivated, irresponsibly implemented, deceitfully justified, & will be - no doubt - spun this way & that to save the skins of those responsible & to shift the blame onto others. Meanwhile, much damage will have been done with more to follow.

Let's wait for the phrase "lessons will have to be learned".