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The business secretary has said he wants reform of higher education funding to create a progressive system.
In an interview with the Sunday Telegraph, Vince Cable said the prime minister fully backs his approach.
"What we are trying to inject into the argument is that if you become a very highly paid investment banker you finish up paying more than if you've gone off and become a voluntary worker or become a physicist in the National Physical Laboratory, or whatever," Cable said.
"I want to make it progressive in that sense."
Last month the business secretary suggested a variable graduate tax could be introduced to make the student funding system fairer.
This would mean students repaying the costs of their tuition through taxation once they begin working, with higher earners paying more.
An independent review of student funding in England is underway by Lord Browne, but its findings will not be published until the autumn.
Despite reports he is unhappy in coalition government, Cable told the Sunday Telegraph he is "content" that Lib Dem policies on fair taxes and "lifting low-paid people out of tax" were in the first Budget and are being carried forward.
In a speech on higher education at London Southbank University last month, the business secretary said students would "almost certainly have to pay" more.
He was setting out plans for a more "progressive" system of funding, including the proposals for a so-called "graduate tax".
Cable called for a "radical rethink" of how universities in England are funded and said the coalition wants to work with the sector "to turn the current funding crisis into an opportunity".
Article Comments
Yes Yes Yes !!
An 'Education Funding Tax' on all graduates of 1 per cent per degree course on their income tax would more than pay for funding of universities.
For people that already paid their loans off, a progressive timescale of when they would attract the tax to take into account what they've already paid.
For *everyone* already graduated, the tax to be introduced immediately.
See thirdchamber.org.uk for more ideas.
Andrew S
9th Aug 2010 at 8:31 am
Dods Parliamentary Communications Ltd
GuildHE
10th Aug 2010 at 12:27 pm