Leading Article: Tory triumph

This week's Conservative plan to provide an extra 10,000 student places next autumn is a smart move. Universities, students and parents – all love it. Higher education groups describe it variously as "bold", "creative" and "innovative", and even the National Union of Students is approving.

The idea seems to have come from Professor John Craven, vice chancellor of the University of Portsmouth, who outlined it in July this year. The 10,000 additional places would be funded by persuading students to pay back their loans more quickly and receive a discount for so doing.

The move is smart on a number of counts. Politically it is astute for the Tories to position themselves as the friends of higher education at a time when public spending cuts are threatened. Until now it is the Labour Party that has been portrayed as the universities' supporter. The announcement acknowledges the importance of higher education to the British economy and to getting young people off the dole and into work. Offering graduates an incentive to pay back loans is a clever way to raise the money to pay for the extra places. This gives people who might not normally vote Conservative a reason to do so.