Beginning with an analysis of the manifesto commitments of the two Coalition partners the author proceeds to set their subsequent policies as they are understood by June 2011 in the context of successive new "frameworks" for UK higher education since the Robbins Report of 1963. This analysis is developed in relation to: the relative positioning of researchers, practitioners and politicians in understanding and promoting alternative policy positions; the deficits exhibited by policy-makers in terms of policy memory; and the international response of higher education to the global economic recession. The article concludes with a contrast between these outcomes in terms of both institutional and political practice in the UK as a "Northern" country, and those of a study focusing on similar issues in the global South. The article concludes with some reflections on the ongoing responsibilities of higher education researchers. (Contains 1 note.)