Less than a week after Vince Cable proposed that a Graduate Tax would be a priority, the Coalition Government has drawn back from the idea. A "senior Conservative source" has told the BBC that a 'pure graduate tax' is an unlikely option.
As I argued after the first announcement, the suggestion as outlined amounted to little more than a tax on income, bore no relation to the actual cost of tuition (there was no upper limit on the money to be recouped), and gave no guarantee that the tax revenue raised would be redirected to Universities. I am delighted that the Conservatives are having none of it.
The only reason to pursue a graduate tax seems to be the Liberal Democrat manifesto promise to abolish tuition fees. Now that they are part of a coalition government, however, the reality is beginning to dawn. The country cannot afford to abolish fees; instead the current system whereby students contribute towards the cost of their own education must stay in one form or another. The proposed graduate tax was a weak attempt by our coalition partners to suggest that they had 'met' their manifesto promise. It smacked of inexperience in government.
Let us hope that Lord Browne's report, when it appears in October, will have been rather more thought through than the rushed views of the Business Secretary.
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