The National Union of Students, Britain’s main student organization, accepted today, for the first time, that universities may collect tuition, The Guardian reported. In a vote at the union’s annual conference, delegates rejected a proposal to continue campaigning for the abolition of tuition, a move that will allow the group to “throw off the shackles of its previous refusal to engage constructively on tuition fees,” the organization said in a news release.

The union vociferously opposed the introduction of so-called variable fees and had continued to insist that higher education be free. Under the fees policy, universities in England and Northern Ireland have been allowed since 2006 to raise their tuition to as much as £3,000 ($6,000) a year.

The fee structure will undergo a thorough government review next year, and representative groups have begun to stake out positions in anticipation of a contentious debate that many expect will result in even higher tuition. A report to be published tomorrow by the Higher Education Policy Institute, “Funding Higher Fees: Some Implications of a Rise in the Fee Cap,” presents a thorough review of the issue. —Aisha Labi