Britain's coalition government on Tuesday got through another test in its bid to hike tuition fees, after the plans were backed by the upper house of parliament despite an attempt to block them. After the proposals scraped through a vote in the lower house last week, lawmakers in the House of Lords voted comfortably in favour of raising the cap on fees to 9,000 pounds (10,600 euros, 14,200 dollars) a year at English universities.
The opposition Labour party submitted amendments which would have stopped the proposals in their tracks, but these were voted down. Universities will be allowed to charge the top rate in exceptional circumstances and the basic level of fees will be set at 6,000 pounds a year. The current fee cap is 3,290 pounds.
The higher fees are now expected to come into force in 2012. In Tuesday's vote, the Conservative-Liberal Democrat coalition government's plans to almost treble the maximum fee charged were backed by 273 lawmakers against 200. Defeat in the upper house is rare.