Others must follow SNP lead in tackling university funding

Michael Russell, the education secretary, has played his cards close to his chest when it comes to the thorny question of student support and university funding.

So his subtle but significant move towards the idea of a graduate tax, which he makes in an interview with this paper today, is a welcome development and should mark the start of a debate everyone in higher education privately accepts has to happen, but which most have refused to have in public.

Mr Russell's ideas have, he says, been shaped by productive conversations with the National Union of Students, an organisation which favours a graduate tax, but he is well aware there are problems with this suggestion. First, as he points out, the Scottish Government could not bring in a graduate tax under powers currently vested in Holyrood.

Secondly, as this newspaper has argued, a graduate tax is deeply unfair if people are taxed in perpetuity and end up paying far more over a lifetime than their university course cost. Being an intelligent politician, Mr Russell, we are sure, recognises this and we are confident he will take the problem of overpayment into account when he comes to a conclusion.

Although Mr Russell's cautious recognition of reality is welcome, it is however regrettable that he has ruled out top-up fees, for he must know there are many people in Scotland's universities at a senior level who believe the system being applied south of the Border works well.

Mr Russell maintains top-up fees as an up-front payment do not work, but if fees were paid up-front by the government, as they have been in England, and repaid after a student had a job and was earning over a certain amount, that would not be a problem.

This debate is often seen in the context of the need to reduce the UK's deficit, but the truth is the long-term funding of universities was a problem even before the financial crash, and the country would be better served if this was acknowledged. Mr Russell's remarks show him to be willing to open up the debate, but he is understandably wary that his views will be exploited by negative opposition.

The challenge now is not just for the SNP but the other parties, too, to say what they would do. Labour has a particular responsibility as it could form the next Holyrood administration. Tempting as it might be, its leader, Iain Gray, would be wrong to allow his party to lapse into knee-jerk oppositionalism. If Labour recognises the problem, as it must, it should be open enough to say what it would do in power - and, remember, that it was party colleagues at Westminster who introduced top-up tuition fees in England and Wales.

The debate over student contribution to the future funding of our universities, one of Scotland's great assets but endangered by the prospect of financial cuts, must not descend into a pointless, partisan party political row. Mr Russell says he is listening, thinking and will come up with his solution in due course. Others should do the same.