Leading article: Question of cash

The controversial matter of ministers' decision to cut funding for students doing a second undergraduate degree and to make them pay much higher fees continues to exercise universities. There is particular concern that the Higher Education Funding Council (Hefce) has not divulged publicly yet the amount of money that higher education institutions will lose as a result from autumn. Its critics suspect that's because MPs on the innovation universities and skills select committee are about to produce a report on the issue – and Hefce didn't want to give them any more anti-government ammunition than they had already. Should Hefce stoop to this kind of mucky politicking?