The precarious question of what to do with the cap on university top-up fees has been swept under institutional and political carpets for too long. It is the question that could unlock a whole array of other problems in the sector, and almost no one who matters wants to be seen considering it.

But with an election on the horizon – however distant it may be now – there is some feverish fees activity going on behind the scenes. Westminster insiders tell me that the Government is poised to review the impact of the new £3,000 fees, in advance of the big 2009 review. This is a blatant piece of political game-playing – kicking the ball that sparked such a humiliating rebellion three years ago firmly into the long grass, while appearing to be getting to the heart of voters' potential concerns about student debt.

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