EducationGuardian.co.uk | Higher special reports | Survival of the fattest as class divide widens

"Under the old binary line system there were many outstanding polytechnic departments and many academics at the cutting edge of their disciplines. It seems that what Margaret Hodge has in mind is something different. Her plans would strip the academic excellence out of the modern universities and turn them into vocational degree factories. And it's not just the modern universities that will be affected. A lot of the 'old' universities will find themselves below the binary cut-off, too."