Vince Cable’s recent announcement about the reform of university funding highlighted the need to both find ways of developing increased funding for universities whilst at the same time reducing the debt burden faced by students and making the whole system fairer for all concerned.

As a Lib Dem councillor and former parliamentary candidate, our parties pledge to scrap tuition fees has been a long held committment by my party that I was particularly proud of. So it was with some concern, to put it mildly that we joined the coalition and then effectively appeared to shelve that committment.

The proposal for a graduate tax instead of a student loans to pay for fees, however would meet the political ambition of removing fees directly from students and in turn reducing the debt burden.

A FAIRER SYSTEM

In addition the fact that the graduate tax in place of fees would by virtue of the tax system be more progressive thus enabling graduates to pay according to their employment income – which means those high flying career graduates would pay more and those on slower burning or lower paid incomes would pay significantly less, put proportionally their fair share.

Understandably the whole issue of student debt, tuition fees and university funding has been a matter of increasing concern over the past few years , but hopefully this will prove to be a liberal minded breakthrough that will prove a win win solution for all concerned.