'Fund degrees' with business tax

[davieG]

'Fund degrees' with business tax

Tuition fees should be abolished and a new business education tax introduced to fund universities, the lecturers' union is arguing.

The University and College Union says corporation tax should be raised to the G7 average - 32.87% with the extra cash ring-fenced to higher education.

Closing corporation tax loopholes at the same time would yield £800m a year extra, funding 100,000 more students.

The government has commissioned its own review of higher education funding.

The UCU says business benefits from higher education and therefore should contribute.

General Secretary Sally Hunt said: "Our proposals are based on fairness.

Debt fears

"The future for the UK is as a high-skilled knowledge economy and that requires business to pay its fair share towards something which benefits us all.

"We believe our proposals will be welcomed by hardworking families who want their children to benefit from education but are put off by the potential debts created by university fees."

Raising corporation tax to the average of the G7 of top industrialised nations would still leave at a lower rate than when the Conservatives

The 1997 Dearing report into university funding listed three beneficiaries of higher education funding as the state, the individual and the employer, the UCU report said.

One of its key findings was that each should pay its fair share.

This tax pays for the investment we need if the future of British business is to be secured

Richard Murphy

Director of Tax Research UK

Since then the state has continued to invest and tuition fees have been introduced, which in England cost students more than £3,000 a year - although this is funded with a student loan.

But while employers benefit from a plentiful supply of graduates, they will not willingly contribute to the higher education infrastructure, the UCU report said.

It added that the current system was unpopular with students and inefficient with each £1 of loaned money costing the Treasury 33p, according to the Confederation of British Industry.

Taking account of the £900m in cuts, tuition fees would have to rise to nearly £7,000 to close the funding gap between the UK and other countries, it added.

Director of Tax Research UK Richard Murphy, said: "This tax pays for the investment we need if the future of British business is to be secured."

A spokesman for the Department for Business, Innovation and Skills said: "The government has commissioned an independent review of higher education funding and student finance chaired by Lord Browne.

"The panel is currently gathering evidence and we will not pre-empt the findings of the review."

[FoxyPV]

All for this as long as business doesn't get to pick and choose what degrees it funds.

Many other changes need to be made to higher education but that's a different discussion.

[breadandcheese]

If this was a proposal to increase income tax to pay for higher education, would it be a popular proposal? I suspect not.

So why is it potentially more popular to see corporation tax as a possible tax to rise? Are people really so foolish that they can't see the link between employment and corporation tax?

We need to have a proper debate about tax in this country, but it should start with simplification. The lecturers union may talk about increasing corporation tax to a level of 30-odd%, but do they factor in business rates, PAYE and all the other different taxes that are levied upon business, which takes their marginal tax rate above 50%.

[FoxyPV]

Tax should be around 50% anyway to provide the money to boost ailing public services - education being one of them. If uni students are to be publicly funded (grants) then they should only be able to repeat (only one term) once, if they fail to do that then throw them out

[Jon the Hat]

Completely nuts. These people have no concept of the fact that the UK is in direct competition with countries who actively work to attract companies with all kinds of tax reduction incentives. You need to create the highly educated and skilled workforce before you can expect companies to pay for it - most companies just don't look that far ahead.

We should be cutting corporation tax and closing loopholes - lower basic rates which companies actually pay.

[TrickyTrev]

Graduate Tax. Extra tax on income if you went to university once you have earned above a certain threshold. Progressive, easy to collect. Stops the current problem of university being a lot more expensive to those who actually have to pay their tuitions fees. Loads of posh kids just take the interest free loan and stick it in an ISA.

We should continue to have low business rates.

[Guest]

Do we want an extra 100,000 kids going to Uni?

Seriously?

[Daggers]

Burn the Universities to the ground - we already have enough graduates upsizing orders in McDonalds.

[FoxyPV]

you should only go to uni if you have a burning desire to learn/ love of your subject/it is an absolute necessity for your chosen career NOT if you just want to develop a drink problem that will take you years to get rid of or just to fill three years fooking about irritating everyone

[Bryn]

Either way I'm gonna get fooked over - cram kids into uni and we get extra tax on income when we're earning? I'm already gonna be in a high tax bracket when I'm qualified. Stop kids going to Uni and make me pay higher tuition fees? Great.

Those of us that are neither rich nor poor but who have a clear idea of where they're going are gonna get fooked either way, even moreso than we already do, so I'm just gonna stop listening and hope I get through Uni before the shit starts flinging.

[Jon the Hat]

you should only go to uni if you have a burning desire to learn/ love of your subject/it is an absolute necessity for your chosen career NOT if you just want to develop a drink problem that will take you years to get rid of or just to fill three years fooking about irritating everyone

You should do whatever you want if you can afford it.