Prof Claire Crawford

A blog published by the Economics of Higher Education network.

The raising of the cap on tuition fees charged by universities in England to £9,000 per year in 2012 does not currently look like it will save the government much money – but it has led to a substantial increase in the funds universities receive to teach undergraduates. That is the finding of new research published by the Institute for Fiscal Studies, funded by Universities UK.

The Government has today announced more details on its new Tax Free Childcare scheme and the way in which childcare will be supported in Universal Credit. The announcement means that the planned system will be significantly more generous than initially envisaged, providing support to children aged up to 12 straight away, will provide a higher level of support, and will provide more generous support for childcare in Universal Credit. Yet the Treasury has not increased its estimate of the total cost, as it has revised down considerably its estimate of how many families will benefit.

From September, state-funded infant and primary schools in England will have a legal duty to offer free meals at lunchtime to all pupils in reception, year 1 and year 2. Claire Crawford and Ellen Greaves examine this policy.

This presentation was delivered at the conference 'Intergenerational Mobility' at the Centre for Economic Performance on 23 January 2014

In a time of continuing fiscal austerity, policymakers increasingly want to know ‘what works’ and for whom, in order to target scarce resources on those who will benefit most and to ensure that policy has the desired impact upon those it is designed for. Basing policy decisions on evidence is undoubtedly a good thing - but only if the evidence used is robust, unbiased and methodologically sound. This observation uses recent IFS work on the link between parents’ marital status and relationship stability and child development to illustrate the challenges of using research to inform policymaking.

Calls have been made for more flexibility over when summer born children can start primary school in order to address differences in educational attainment. This follows IFS research showing that summer born children, on average, do significantly less well at school than other children. But our research also suggests a better policy response would be to provide age-adjusted test scores.

Presentation to launch the Fiscal Studies Special Issue June 2013 on the Microeconomic Consequences of the Great Recession, given at IFS on 12 June 2013.