When the government rammed through an increase in student fees in 2004, the extra cash was supposed to make good decades of university un-derfunding. Decrepit old buildings were to be replaced with swanky new ones and lecturers, finally, were to be paid enough to stop the best decamping to America. The following year the unions looked for some of the largesse, demanding a 23% pay rise. That was unrealistic, although they gave it their best shot with a disruptive boycott of exams in 2006. Eventually they accepted 10% over two years, to be followed in October 2008 by the higher of 2.5% or retail-price inflation.
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