The prospect of tuition fee increases for public sector universities has attracted an enormous amount of attention in recent years as governments in all industrialized countries have responded to the converging pressures of increased demands for higher education and rising costs of competing areas of social spending. I show that this dilemma is fast approaching a critical point in both Canada and the UK. As contemporary society become "knowledge societies," postsecondary systems become "complex," requiring a sensitive political blending of different institutional goals, such as accessibility, diversity of mission, critical thought, relevance, and social usefulness. This article draws upon the policy model of income contingent repayment (ICR) as a touchstone for debates and larger proposals about addressing the future of higher education reform. My hope is to show the partial shortcomings of the traditional alternatives: reliance on state-provided subsidy on the one hand and deregulated and flexible fees on the other. I then argue that changes in the social and political meaning of participation in higher education might warrant taking a second look at the "smart funding" approach represented by ICR proposals. (Contains 3 endnotes.)