Voice concerned by Browne report's "tax on talent"

12 October 2010

Voice: the union for education professionals has expressed its concerns about the report of the Independent Review of Higher Education Funding and Student Finance published today (12 October 2010).

General secretary Philip Parkin said: "We are very concerned about the potential impact of these proposals on higher education. If implemented, these recommendations could deter many students from poorer families from attending universities charging higher fees or even from going to university at all.

"In the future, schools may struggle to recruit teachers as more graduates seek the most highly paid employment, in order to ease their debt burden, rather than socially valuable careers such as teaching.

"As most students already graduate with the burden of large debts and then, on top of loan repayments, have to face increasing costs for housing, pension provision etc, it is unfair that they should have to pay even more.

"This is a tax on talent that risks creating an in-debt society. Politicians, many of whom benefited from a university education before the days of fees and loans, run the risk of pulling up the ladder of opportunity behind them.

"Raising the level of fees could make the UK uncompetitive with countries that charge considerably less. Universities could see fewer foreign students and Britain could lose its place as a world centre of excellence in higher education.

"There is already state funding for education at primary and secondary level and it is crucial to continue that into higher education if society values the skills and learning that education brings. We live in a knowledge-based economy and this country needs more graduates.

"Once they graduate and find employment or become self-employed, students become taxpayers themselves and so contribute a substantial part of their income to society.

"Far from being a costly burden, graduates contribute enormously to all aspects of our society – in medicine, science, engineering, business, economics, education, the environment, the law, politics, the media, the arts and creative industries…

"However, we welcome the report's recognition of those who study part-time study and its recommendation of 'equal entitlement to tuition support'. Part-time study does indeed provide 'a second chance for people who missed out earlier in their lives' and it is important to 'level the playing field between part-time and full-time study'."

---

Press releases, papers and documents published on this page are the intellectual property of an organisation unrelated to Central Lobby. We promote their parliamentary and political campaigning activities as they are subscribers to the Central Lobby service.

As such, Central Lobby does not edit, endorse, or attempt to balance the opinions expressed on this page. The content of press releases and other such types of content are the responsibility of the originating organisation.