The rise of the tuition fees for British students leads to less candidates. Combined with the cuts in the financing, it motivates most of the universities to concentrate their efforts on attracting more overseas students, who pay higher fees, so the universities can survive financially. The universities have limitations about the total number of students they can teach. Which means there are less places left for British students. Which means, in several years there would be even more severe shortage of doctors, dentists, etc.
The lecturers are not paid only for teaching. They have to do research and A LOT of administrative duties. Apart of that teaching is not just going to the lecture theatre and reading a lecture. Much longer time is spent on preparing the lecture. It is not like in school education where the teachers are supposed to use a particular textbook for their subject. In higher education, for most of the subjects, the lecturers write a big part of the material themselves, after working with lots of references. To keep with the high standards, lecture notes have to be provided for the students. Many courses, especially the specialized ones, have to be updated on regular basis, which means the lecturers should be aware of the development in their subject areas.
The students, on the other hand, are not supposed to just attend the lectures. They are required to learn how to find information themselves, to analyse it and to present their work. Those who want to learn and to get high grades, usually have to work hard.
