Graduates pay more tax already, if you take their figures that on average a grad earns 100k more over lifetime.

Surely this repays the country for their education already, at the moment the "loan" repayments mean you pay back the amount at +9% of earnings over 15k until paid off. The more you earn the quicker you pay off, at least everyone pays the same, and any additional taxes over lifetime are the bonus to society.

It would cut down on the "useless" degrees though. Whether this is a good thing depends on your personal point of view

I would rather pay my (or my child's) way and let them keep the fruits of their effort rather than being saddled with more tax for the rest of their lives.

The bare fact is the University sector has grown too big. The last administration set itself the dogmatic goal of getting 50% of 18 year olds into higher ed, regardless of whether they were actually needed to for society or there were useful things to do - the reality is a student doesn't count as jobless, even if they're doing a degree that is essentially useless in the post-graduation world.

The Universities were required to go along with this and thus had to grow to accommodate many thousands more students, many of whom wouldn't have got near University a decade or so ago. Now that growth required cash which the government, given the whole thing was their idea, was obliged to provide - at least in part. Student fees also played a part - a wonderful idea by the government to get the people who would otherwise be jobless to mortgage themselves to not appear on the statistics. Win! The problem we now have of course is that, because the students are paying, they now feel entitled to a degree at the end of it, which means an awful lot of degrees are effectively worth zip in the eyes of an employer and, to be honest, a lot of students woudl have been much better off getting even a part time job at 18 or learning some sort of non-academic skill, certain sectors of which the country is direly in need of. Essentially, the system has screwed everyone except the government.

The problem of course is the government is now skint but the Universities are still big and still need funding. What I assume will happen is the Universities will shrink back to the state they were in before the whole cockamamie social experiment got under way and maybe just maybe, Universities will get back to the point where they're only taking in students who are a) good enough to get proper degrees and b) actually want to be there, rather than just doing it because it's there. And maybe the people who are thinking of doing degrees in hotel management (FFS) will sod off and get a proper job instead, which will be better for everyone.

Jon

Well I agree about the too many students going to university. That was always going to be a problem.

If they made the two year vocational courses available from polytechnics only we could see the end of these new universities. If they unwound all the student debts and went back to the past system it would be just as expensive, but then if they concentrated that into far fewer students who could pay the extra through the normal tax system without the need for a graduate tax.

It's too late. All the polytechnics are now universities. Because the whole system was re-geared into a sausage factory for graduate production, rather than any sort of standard of academic prowess or research. 'Never mind the quality, feel the numbers!' Everybody had to become a university so they could give out BSCs &BAs. Nobody wanted to do vocational qualifications any more because hey, having a degree was obviously better, even though nobody actually had any wish to employ someone with a BA in catering studies because they would do the same job as someone who didn't have the qualification but would expect a higher wage because they've got a degree.

The place I started out working in the academic sector, which was a technical college back then for pity's sake, is now a university. It's ludicrous.

Yes it is snobbery of degrees over vocational qualifications. Also a degree in catering management would normally mean an admin job high up the organisations and the majority of places that would be taken by the owner, so no need for a catering graduate.

This is a brilliant idea in my opinion.

About the point somebody made about graduates emigrating - the situation is exactly the same as the current system. In the current system, debts are written off after 15 years IIRC.

I thought it was 25? Still, it doesn't stop graduate seeking better opportunities abroad.

All the politicians who screwed up the university system benefited from free education. Maybe they should have to pay the graduate tax as well?

And it looks like it's going to be rejected.