He said critics of the policy - which provoked a huge backbench rebellion in the Commons - had been proven wrong as more people sought places on higher education courses.
Now many European countries are following Britain's example and considering their own fee systems, he said.
The Prime Minister was speaking after figures from admissions service Ucas showed a 6.4% rise in applications to universities this year.
The increase followed a drop last year when top-up fees of é3,000 per year were introduced in England for the first time.
Speaking at Brunel University in Uxbridge, Middlesex, Mr Blair said: "More than one vice-chancellor has told me that tuition fees have been the saviour of their university.
"Yesterday's university admission numbers, which show a big increase on last year and a rise even of the bumper intake of 2005, are a complete vindication of that policy."
Ministers introduced tuition fees initially at é1,000 a year and this rose to a maximum of é3,000 from last year.
Mr Blair said the policy was clearly right but "very difficult politically" at the time.
"None of the fears of critics have come to pass," he said.
"Applications have not fallen - they have risen.
"Critics said that fees would deter the poorest students. They haven't.
"As fees rise, the new system offers more grants to the poorest and graduates start repayments only when they are earning enough to do so.
"Critics said that the income from fees would, in any case, be insufficient. In fact, we have halted the decline in funding per student."
Mr Blair added: "Like many difficult political battles, once won, the policy quickly becomes the conventional wisdom. Many other European countries are following suit."
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so a lack of decent jobs in this country and the fact that parents encourage their children to seek further education these days (not to mention the fact that there are a lot of young people who are savvy enough to know themselves that they won't succeed without a degree), coupled with the fact that most companies employ economic immigrants to fill the posts that school-leavers would have taken in the past has nothing to do with young people going to university? i think the fact that these young people are prepared to suffer the mass debt imposed on them for bettering themselves is a testament to their bravery in a country that has given them virtually nothing in the last 15 years. take that grin off your face, blair - your time is over and no one will vote for you based on a half-arsed 'i told you so'. git.
How absurd..Blair telling the nation he is right over tuition fees....the oarents of children wanting to send children to uni have no choice now..thats the truth...not like Blair he went to Uni for nothing...
Marc and Andy - I couldn't agree more. My son will be one of the lucky ones as we took out a savings policy when he was born to help him anytime he needed it for his future. We were hoping we could pay a deposit for him on his first home. He is 15 now and wants to study physics at uni so the money will cover his course but he will have to live at home so he can leave debt free. I think any degree course that the country needs should at least be free, while the so called softer courses should at least be part funded by the student but £3000 a year is disgusting and will only create a generation in debt. It is also disgusting that Blair and his cronies all received a free degree course themselves but now students have to pay. Fact is, you have to have a degree these days for any hope of owning your own home and having some semblence of a decent life.
So once again this smug man thinks he is right -- what planet is he on. Blair has single handedly wrecked a great country and he is such an arrogant so and so that he believes he can't be wrong.
Labour has always pulled the ladder up behind them so that ordinary folk don't get the opportunities they deserve - just look what they did to grammar schools. Blair and cronies have had the benefits of a degree education fully funded at tax payers (you and I) expense! I went to university as a mature student and got a degree in history. Consequently I owe several thousands of pounds to the student loan company. I calculated some years ago that on the pay rate I was on then I would be 74 years old before I would pay it off! I just see it that if are are clever, you get punished! Blairs top-up fees deter ordinary working class teenagers from going to university. Degree education now is for the rich which is WRONG. It should be on ACADEMIC ABILITY. Tony Blair is a hypocrite who doesn't know his history and is too preoccupied with his future place in history! As for people who obtain science degrees in particular I am not surprised they leave this country for better pastures abroad i.e. the brain drain.
Although I agree with most of the comments made below, I disagree that you need to go to uni to succeed in life. I did not go to uni and am now a part qualified accountant with a very good position in a FTSE 250 company in the city centre. Obviously I am pursuing the full qualifacation status, but my point is, with the right advice you can do what you want. As for Blair....Tony, you state that applications have risen, could this be directly linked to the rise in the level of average household debt this country?? I wonder !! Also, do your figures include applications from immigrants, whose families are prepared to part with substantial savings in the hope of recouping them 10 fold when their siblings become high earners? I'm sure they do. This approach of "I was right" can only create more resentment from those affected by your fee strategy. I fail to see where the tax we pay goes, as most services apart from NHS and emergency services are privately owned, and to get a decent education in this country you have to send you kids to a private school !!
Tony, you should have been a CEO of a commercial enterprise- not PM !!!!
Blair shows again how he is losing the plot, there is massive resentment amongst young people and their parents who have been beggared by this vicious policy, apparently the ¿¿3,000 is to rise soon to ¿¿6,000 then ¿¿9,000. If this collection of expense fiddlers were to stop pouring huge sums down black holes there would be no need for this. Many graduates will now be emigrating, this country offers them nothing but blood letting far into the future. Of course, if you are a multi property owning greedy investor like Blair you will probably be OK in the UK of the future. Socialist principles? Where did they go?
Tone....yeah you're right - people should pay to have letters alongside their name such as BSc, BA, KBE, Sir, Baron, Knight etc...
What's the top up fee nowadays for a peerage?
Unfortunately Mr Blairs reasoning for an increase in University applications is misguided. The reformed 'A' levels make it easier and have been made easier for students across the spectrum to be awarded better grades and hence enter the University system. This has allowed more individuals to enter the education system, and this has been coupled by financially strained Universities in making grade offers which are much lower than in previous years. This is the main reason for increase in University applications not because of the disastrous reason of increasing tution fees.
Best Wishes
Baldev
University Education in this country for all of those in authority now was FREE! How unfair to impose fees for the the next generation. They are selfish enjoying their comfortable pensions, state funded, and high paying wages. The mark of a true developed nation is free education for those who have the intelect to make the best of it and to provide good solidemployment for those who need it otherwise ie. unskilled work. The way it is today is to de value the degree qualification and reduce the country to a nation of people with massive debt for no gain. Blair you are a power drunk leader and your time is up. Thank goodness we have a democracy where you will eventually be removed.
Quality not quantity Mr Blair!. We are in the EU so we can work anywhere with no hassle, people need to stop being shortsighted and realised UK is a dying country but many other European countries are not
Is this "vindicated" as in Iraq, road charging policy etc?
Many students did not enter university last year, work until September this year and then enter university so the "rise in admissions" should take that into account. Employment combined with Uni course is also the choice of many in order to survive foundation year debt free.
For those of us who haven't had wealthy parents and a public school education, university education =debt and inability to purchase a home when we graduate. This is the "Blair legacy" on education, not that he will notice it!
Blair is arrogant with his "I told you so" attitude. Doesn't he realise, like the poster said below that degrees are a NECESSITY these days just to get a hlf decent job ?
The sooner he is out the better. What a disappointment he has become compared to the hope we all had in 1997. The country is a mess and not just the education system. Labour seem to be more interested in sending money to educate Africa than caring about the youth of Britan.
There is a massive rise in the number of young people in debt in this country, and a lot of this may be attributed to university fees. Not everybody who leaves university walks into a fantastically paid job (myself included), and what seems particularly unfair to me is that young people who want to go to university to help themselves to a better future and contribute to society have to pay to do this, but those don't bother finishing school or bother trying to find a job will be paid benefits.
My education fees were paid; however, I received no grant due to my parents' income. But the times have changed and they let anyone into University now to study any old rubbish which has put a strain on 'the coffers'. I agree that where the country is lacking, funds should be made available. For the sciences, medicine and engineering, however, only on the proviso that the student claiming the countries money for their education, stays in the country to work in their chosen field! For the tax payer to fund an individual's further education, then that individual goes to another country to earn a tax free crust is unacceptable! There in the problem lies. Further education is so the individual is more employable and can command a higher salary in today's market. Therefore, should the individual be responsible for their own success by stumping up their own money? If you want public money for your studies then the government should only release it for what the country needs. Then, you will not be allowed to travel or work elsewhere for 5 years till you have paid your fees back in kind by benefiting the nation.
I agree. The reason numbers have risen this year is because they plummeted last year when the maximum fees were introduced, but people have now begrudgingly accepted you have to have a degree ever to be able to afford to survive in this country.
I finish paying my student loan off next month, but even though I was lucky and the last year before tuition fees, it's 12 years after I started uni!
Further, charging tuition fees was a ploy to withdraw government funding from universities. However, I don't remember taxes coming down at all to reflect this enormous saving...
Vindication my ****.
Educational qualifications have been so watered down that soon a person without a degree will be regarded with the same abject horror and incredulity as a person who confesses to not owning a television.
Mickey Mouse is the Vice Chancellor of UK University.....
Tony Blair is always right - according to Tony Blair. Does anyone know which planet he comes from?
William Gaulk Jones, your comments are very fair and spot on.
I don't have a degree but I did leave college in 1986 and walked into a job within a month. I have worked my way up and earn a pretty good salary now but I know it isn't as easy for college leavers now. I am going to do my best so my son can have a university education without debt.
Good for you Mrs D. I wish you and your son the very best of futures!
Here speaks a man who enjoyed a free uni education, with a son that will eventually leave educaton debt free, land a top notch job, (ironically, in world politics) not because of merit but connections. Who remembers the insult, to uni students parents, from mrs B, "his (sons) first time away from home" (in appartment worth over 200 grand). That`s why Blair is smirking! all is well on planet Blair, a scrillion miles from Terra Firma!.
Err but remind me Tony - were tuition fees in your then pre election manifesto??
I am a first year student at salford university, and so i am one of the first back of people who have had to pay this fee.
Every time i think of it, it makes my blood boil. i am paying £3000 a year for my tuition, due to my parents income i dont get any grant meaning i have to pay everypenny back myself, even though my parents dont give me any money.
what makes me even more annoyed is that i am in for 8 hours a week, yet i still have to pay the same amount as somebody who is in for 17 hours a week, even though i am getting less tuition.
The increase of fee may have given more opportunities to the poorer students, but i think it has made life harder for those others.
Blair youve never been right on anything youve ever said?