The government decided at the last minute to introduce two separate pieces of legislation, to minimise disruption to the School Standards and Framework Bill from the anticipated opposition to its proposals on tuition fees.

The Teaching and Higher Education Bill was introduced in the House of Lords on 26 November 1997 and passed into law as an Act after completing its parliamentary passage on 16 July 1998.

Other main elements of the Act are:

• Establishment of General Teaching Councils for England and Wales.
• Measures to reform the teaching profession.
• Provision for certain young workers to have time off to study.

Student Funding

This part of the Act paves the way for the replacement of the maintenance living grant for students across the UK with a loan, and the introduction of tuition fees for study.

The government first outlined its broad plans for student funding in a report, Higher Education for the 21st Century, published on the same day as the Dearing report on higher education - 23 July 1997.

The changes will see:

• Tuition fees paid by all except the poorest students from 1998/9. About 30% of pupils will not pay tuition fees because their income or that of their parents or spouses is too low. Another 30% with family incomes of less than about £35,000 a year will pay less than the maximum level for 1998/9 of £1,000.
• The replacement of the maintenance grant for living expenses with loans from 1999/2000. Repayment of loans will be at the rate of 9% of a graduate's income once it is above £10,000.
• The availability of a supplementary hardship loan of £250 a year.
• Bursaries for students entering teacher training or health and social care courses; employers will be invited to consider bursaries for other areas.

After one of the longest games of parliamentary "ping pong" in recent decades, the Teaching and Higher Education Bill finally completed its parliamentary passage in the early hours of 16 July 1998 and became an Act.

Prior to this, the House of Lords had passed three successive amendments to the Bill which would have meant that English, Welsh and Northern Irish students studying at Scottish universities would pay a total of £3,000 in tuition fees for a four-year course - the typical duration of degree-level studies in Scotland - in line with their Scottish counterparts.

These amendments were overturned in the Commons, but the threat of the Lords defeating the government on a fourth occasion was only averted when the Education Secretary, David Blunkett, promised an independent review of the operation of tuition fees in Scotland.

General Teaching Councils

The purpose of the GTCs for England and Wales is to improve the standing of the teaching profession by establishing professional bodies to represent it. They are modelled on the teaching council that Scotland has had since 1965. Separate legislation on a GTC for Northern Ireland is currently being framed.

The function of the GTCs will be to advise the Education Secretary on standards of teaching and standards of conduct for teachers, on the role of the teaching profession and the recruitment and career development of teachers, and on whether a teacher should be sacked or prohibited from teaching.

The GTCs will also maintain registers of teachers - who will have to pay a fee to have their names entered. The Secretary of State will have powers to require employers to deduct the fee from salary. These fees will eventually finance the GTCs, after initial start-up costs are met by central government.

Reform of the teaching profession

Various measures to improve teacher training are contained in the Act:

• Newly qualified teachers are to serve an induction period before employment.
• Teacher training institutions are to be inspected by the school inspectorates in both England and Wales.
• College training courses for those who want to become teachers are to be required to put more emphasis on English and maths for primary teachers, and maintain new standards which all trainees must meet before qualifying to teach.
• A new grade of Advanced Skills Teacher so that the best teachers can make progress in their careers without moving away from the classroom.
• New arrangements for assessing how well heads and teachers do their jobs, and quicker procedures for dealing with incompetent heads and teachers.