University tuition fees
Recently, the governmnent has announced plans for all new university students to be charged up to £3,000 per year for their tuition. This money would not be paid up-front, but retrospectively as part of a “graduate repayment scheme” once the graduate is earning above a certain threshold (probably about £15,000pa).
They claim that this is a fair system. Well, I’ll agree it’s certainly fairer than the current system (where students are required to pay annual fees of £1,150 up-front). That system (which I was subject to) has offered no incentive for young people to enter higher education. An A-level student knows that were they to decide they wanted to go to university, they would be required to find £1,150 a year (unless they were lucky enough to fall under the government’s definition of a ‘poorer student’, in which case they would pay less). I fail to see how that can help to increase the number of students - another of the government’s targets.
The Liberal Democrats have proposed that instead of a graduate repayment scheme, higher education should be funded by a 50% top rate of income tax for those earning in excess of £50,000. The government says that students should not be entirely funded through general taxation, as the majority of people in this country did not attend university, and it is unfair to expect them to pay for those who do wish to go.
Excuse me? Is this a Labour government or a Tory one? It certainly sounds like something the Tories would have proposed in the mid-nineties. I believe it is entirely fair for the general public to pay for the increases in higher education funding. It is they who will benefit. Everyone needs a doctor. A doctor is a graduate. Everyone will need a lawyer at some point in their lives. Lawyers are graduates. Everyone wants a television. Televisions are designed by electronic engineers, who are graduates. Everyone wants clean water, which is produced through systems designed by civil and chemical engineers. Again, all graduates.
If the government feels that an increase in the number of graduates is needed in Britain, there must be a reason. Presumably because the general population needs these graduates to fill job vacancies. In that case, it is entirely proper that the general public should pay (through general taxation) for the increased funding required to achieve this.
Of course, Labour won’t do that, because they’re too worried about going into the next election with a reputation of taxing and spending. The possibility of being a modern, progressive, Socialist government, committed to education being free at the point of delivery seems to be eluding them.
Clement Attlee must be turning in his grave…