MPs demand a tax on graduates

MPs are demanding that student tuition fees are capped and a graduate tax introduced to allow more students to go to university.

The fees are currently up to £3,225 a year in England. But universities are lobbying the Government to lift the cap and allow them to set their fees individually so they can meet the rising costs of providing higher education. Vice-chancellors have suggested annual fees of £5,000 or more.

The NUS, along with many MPs, fears this will lead to only the richest students being able to choose where to study, with the most prestigious universities becoming too expensive for many.

A Parliamentary petition is supporting a call for a graduate tax in which those who have already been to university and are now working would, dependent on their salary, contribute to a national trust of 0.3 per cent and 2.5 per cent of their salaries each month for 20 years.

The petition says: “This House concurs with the National Union of Students that a graduate tax should be introduced for financing universities in place of top-up fees and that raising the £3,000 cap on fees will create further marketisation of higher education, pricing the poorest out of the system; and believes that a graduate tax would also provide a more reliable and consistent form of finance for universities and have the benefit of fostering a longer-term bond between alumni and the university.”

Only 5.5 per cent of youngsters in parts of the St Mary’s council ward, where almost half of households are on low incomes, made it on to higher education — one of the worst records in the country, according to recent research.

Just below them were teenagers living in parts of Failsworth West, where 7.7 per cent of youngsters go on to higher education, the Office of National Statistics showed.

No other council wards across Oldham featured in the top 500 worst or best areas.

NUS president Wes Streeting said “Students are making it clear to politicians that if they refuse to speak out against raising the cap on fees, we will hit them where it hurts — at the ballot box.”