University funding

[onebyone]

If Lord Browne's plans go into effect, it seems likely that the four-year degree I took from Oxford will soon cost 24k at the very least, and perhaps more like 40k, in student debt for fees. What actually happened was that I graduated 10 years ago with 5k in student debt, none of which was because of tuition fees

Comments

Re: Without trawling through the comments

[undyingking]

Mm, the EU aspect complicates things. Although presumably non-British EU people studying here aren't funded by the UK govt anyway, but by themselves or their own govt. Plus of course Scottish students are handled differently. But these are just accounting issues that needn't obstruct the principle.

Yes, the US taxes all citizens, wherever resident, on their income wherever earned. For some countries of residence they have a tax treaty arrangement to mitigate the efects of double taxation, but the theory is that anyone who's a US citizen should be contributing fully to its revenues. What this all means for the people and employers involved I don't know, but it's long established and no-one seems to complain all that vocally.

Analogous treaties could be arranged for British graduates who are (genuinely) resident overseas: they pay the bulk of their income tax to the country of residency, but continue to be liable for the graduate tax to the UK govt.

The point being that although it may initially sound complex and fraught with perverse effects, clearly it does work acceptably in the US case, so we can fine tune it based on the solutions they've found.

Re: Without trawling through the comments

[a_llusive]

presumably non-British EU people studying here aren't funded by the UK govt anyway, but by themselves or their own govt.

WRONG.
They are charged fees and get UK student loans on exactly the same terms as UK students (there is no cross charging scheme to extract the money from their home nation). Anything else would breach EU laws. But, as mentioned, on the same grounds where a EU government fully funds or substantially subsidises degrees in its territories, UK students don't have to pay any more then the host government's nationals.
Recovery rates on such student loans are far lower than of UK citizens student loans.

The tax scheme is (after all) projected for the government to front universities the fee money so they will be insulated from cashflow problems but that won't stop a large hole in that financing developing if recovery rates are poor. Given this government claims to be all about fiscal responsibility and not creating unsustainable funding models this seems odd.