Higher education in England has expanded in most years since the Second World War, moving from an elite system to a mass one where half of school leavers now progress to university. A lasting funding settlement, however, has proved elusive as the generosity of the post-war decades became unviable as the sector expanded. Eventually this led to the reintroduction of tuition fees, which have added complexity to the debate about how higher education should be funded since the late twentieth century. The political reality of making changes to higher education funding is, however, more complex than the tense nature of the debate might make it seem.