The two big events in higher education during 2010 were the implementation of the Equality Act, and the introduction of a new dispensation on fees and funding. The former is intended to promote equality, the latter is premised on the need for economy. In this article, the author focuses on the effect of the latter on the former. He considers this effect against the background of an old question, which is the role of the state in promoting the public good. He argues that higher education is both a private benefit and a public good, that it is therefore incumbent both on the individual and on the state to pay for it, that the equality agenda is best pursued in the context of an understanding of higher education as a public good, that this understanding is being eroded by the new dispensation on fees and funding, and that the public good is something the state cannot abdicate responsibility for. When the state withdraws its funding on the grounds that a university education is primarily a private benefit, there is reason to be concerned about its commitment to the equality agenda, and indeed to the public good.