“We have concluded the disadvantages are such that we do not support a graduate tax”

So said Lord Dearing in his landmark review of Higher Education, or HE funding in 1997, shortly before tuition fees were first introduced.

Over a decade later, Lord Browne’s review of HE funding in 2010 also rejected calls for a graduate tax before going on to propose a significant uplift in tuition fees.

Here we are, over a decade on from the Browne Review, and yet again a graduate tax is being proposed by some commentators as the solution to the financial woes facing the HE sector, particularly as opposition to the current student loan system grows by the day.

A graduate tax would essentially mean that rather than a graduate paying back the cost of their HE course through student loan repayments when they are in work, graduates would instead pay an extra tax on top of their income tax and these extra payments would depend purely on their income level rather than the actual cost of their HE course.

So what makes a graduate tax look appealing relative to a student loan system? Would students, universities and the government be better or worse off if a graduate tax was implemented? And, crucially, do the reasons that led to a graduate tax being rejected in the past still hold true today? 

My guests are Professor John Blake, director of the Post-18 project, and Jonathan Simons, a Partner and Head of the Education Practice at Public First.

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