University tuition and maintenance

Securing a Sustainable Future for Higher Education in England, the outcome of eleven months of deliberation by a strong panel chaired by John Browne, President of the Royal Academy of Engineers and previously CEO of BP, seems to be annoying the statists and the free marketeers in equal measure, so it's probably the best we could hope for in these middle-of-the-road times - which is pathetically inadequate.

The recommendations supposedly remove the cap on tuition fees, but the state would claw back 50 percent of fees above £6000 and 75 percent above £12,000. This is intended to prevent higher learning institutions from charging fees comparable to US universities. So, the person in Whitehall still knows best and the cap remains.

The report also, so the MSM assures us, rejects Vince Cable's proposal for a graduate tax. It does this by cunningly proposing - a graduate tax! From an income threshold of £21,000, rising to £70,000 over the next 30 years in line with "probable wage inflation", graduates will still repay 9 percent of their income, with interest rates capped at 2.2 percent. Maintenance grants, previously limited to £2,906 for students with family incomes below £25,000, will rise to £3,250 for those with family incomes under £60,000.

So, the core imbecilities of Cable's proposal remains: bureaucracy-intensive means testing and no way of recovering tuition from graduates who wisely depart this sceptred isle to make a better living elsewhere. I suppose it's the thin end of the wedge that will lead eventually to students loans issued by independent financial institutions; but meanwhile it's a typically British dog's breakfast.