28th July 2010 9:00
By Blue Tutors
It’s believed that the coalition government will shortly reject Vince Cable’s suggestion to impose a graduate tax, as an alternative to raising university tuition fees. In a report on the BBC website, a senior conservative MP source has described a graduate tax as an “unlikely option”.
University tuition fees is an area where the Conservatives and Liberal Democrats disagree; the Lib Dems pledging to abolish tuition fees, and the Tories hoping to raise the current £3,225 yearly cap on the amount students pay for their tuition. Cable said that a graduate tax is a fairer repayment system, but it would mean the higher earning graduates paying more than their tuition was originally worth, and could lead to a ‘brain-drain’ with better graduates choosing to work abroad.
Also, the coalition government are keen to maintain the direct link between students and their university. A post-course tax would be collected by the treasury, to be distributed as they see fit, rather than definitely improving the finances of universities in England and Wales, which is the reason for increase in tuition fees.
However, despite not yet deciding on how to change the current tuition fee system, the government have committed to changing it soon, even if it’s not with the introduction of a graduate tax.