Analysis: Higher education is not 'free'. It is paid for by taxpayers

Published on Wednesday 27 October 2010 17:58

IN AN ideal world, higher education should be an option open to everyone who reaches the required academic standard. However, even under the current system of taxpayer-funded university places, there are school leavers who cannot afford to attend university and, instead, seek employment.

It cannot be right that such individuals, or indeed other non-graduates, have to subsidise fully those who can afford to go to university.

Higher education is not "free". Rather, in Scotland it is paid for by taxpayers. Further, it is not a universal service, such as healthcare or school education, from which no-one should be excluded. Instead, it is based on academic achievement.

Before universal services, such as healthcare or policing, are targeted for spending cuts, it is only fair that the current system of university funding, which often sees the less well-off contribute through their taxes for the better-off to go to university, is reviewed. That Universities Scotland is calling for such a review after next year's election is welcome.

There is currently a lack of published evidence on the true cost of higher education in Scotland, which is why Reform Scotland has recommended that the Scottish Government commissions independent research to work out the true average costs of degrees.

Then it can be decided what proportion the government will pay.

The question is what model to follow? Reform Scotland believes we need to re-examine the funding of higher education in order to ensure a better balance, with both taxpayers and graduates contributing towards the cost of university education. It will lead to a better and fairer method of funding higher education in Scotland and regardless of the current financial crisis or the possible removal of the cap on tuition fees down south.

In our report, Power to Learn, published last June, we called for graduates to contribute towards the cost of higher education in Scotland through the introduction of a deferred fee. This would cover a proportion of the cost of the degree and would need to be paid back only when the graduate earned more than the Scottish average salary. The Scottish Government would fund a set percentage of the average cost of a degree, broken down by broad subject area.

In the longer term, Reform Scotland believes that some of the extra resources raised from the deferred fee could be used to expand the availability of loans to all students and to raise the point at which they start being repaid to the Scottish average salary, in line with our proposals for the deferred fee.

Our recommendations will go some way towards helping to create a system of higher education that continues to produce well-educated individuals, but is funded in a way that is fairer to society as a whole.

• Geoff Mawdsley is director of Reform Scotland.