AbstractWhen the Education Reform Bill, now an Act, was published higher education received little attention. It was a massive Bill, with major changes for the schools. But as time went on reaction outside Parliament, and lobbies within it caused higher education, but mainly the universities and their role, to be forced to the front of the political stage.Although key government concessions were made in the Commons, most of the action happened in the Lords. The government may have wanted to deflect the Lords from making substantial changes to their school reforms by giving their Lordships something to bite on in higher education. Or was it the success of the CVCP campaign, which undoubtedly raised morale in the universities, that was responsible for key changes? Was it luck, political circumstance, or the intellectual vigour of the arguments that led to government defeats on the question of academic freedom? This paper traces the passage of the Bill as it affected higher education.