• Britain will no longer cap the number of students who receive publicly funded loans to attend private universities.
• The number of students  receiving publicly funded loans for private universities rose from 4,300 in 2009-10 and 5,860 in 2010-11 to 9,360 within the first six months of 2011-12.
• Private education providers still account for only 1 percent of institutions receiving money from publicly-funded loans.

From the article:

Private higher education providers in Britain are to compete directly with public universities for undergraduate places for the first time after the British government announced that it aimed to bring them under the same controls on the number of students accessing public loans, and the same quality assurance regime, as the rest of the sector.

In its long-awaited response to the public consultation on the higher education white paper, the government says it will create a "level ­playing field" without ­primary ­legislation. ­...