Any new system would have to be brought in gradually as it was essential that the sector was not run down any further. Students are already making sacrifices by deferring their income, as well as deferring their leisure and pleasure. The suggestion that students need to pay for their education in order to be motivated is absurd and has a danger that higher education could be turned into a commodity. Education is not something which we should offer in this way as it means that people who can t afford to buy it are excluded. Quality in higher education was assured in a variety of different ways.
Quality is good at present, although it is threatened.
The whole of society benefits from this investment. To say that the individual is the beneficiary of education is to take a very individualistic view of things. Perhaps people who graduated might trigger another National Insurance type contribution from employers. However, such contributions might have to be voluntary, as the Government had pledged not to put taxes up. The preference of the AUT was for taxation.