Graduate tax

What should replace student fees and the graduate endowment in Scotland as one means of financing our universities?

Brian McNair made out a thoughtful case for a graduate income tax on both sides of the Border (Opinion, 22 July). He did not, however, address the issue of whether the Treasury could adopt different criteria for the two different higher education systems.

Without recognising it, he made a strong case for fiscal autonomy. If a Scottish Government had the power to vary income tax on graduate incomes to suit economic conditions, his proposals would have much more credibility.

The whole question of what students and graduates should pay towards the cost of their education has highlighted the benefits of devolution. The Lab/Lib coalition might have been right or wrong in scrapping up front fees and introducing the graduate endowment. The minority SNP government might have been right or wrong in doing away with the graduate endowment which replaced fees. But at least both showed a distinctive approach.

Simply to give the Treasury at Westminster the power to introduce a graduate tax for the whole of the UK would be a step backward. It would be too crude an instrument for a student and graduate body already complaining about large amounts of debt.

BOB TAYLOR

Shiel Court

Glenrothes