This article traces recent policy developments relating to full-time undergraduate student retention within the English higher education system. It focuses specifically on the changing government policies and strategies designed to influence institutional behavior to promote widening participation while attending to the student experience and through that to raising student retention rates. The article finally explores the potential impact of recent proposals to allow institutions to be free to raise tuition fees, placing the burden of cost on the student alongside an encouragement to open the market to more completion through “for profit” new private sector providers.
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