For richer, for poorer

How to rethink the state subsidy for higher education.

Any reforms to university funding in England must consider whether affluent graduates should pay more than lower earners, according to Jack Britton and Claire Crawford of the Institute for Fiscal Studies.

The pair have analysed four proposed reforms and identified the effect that each would have on graduates with lucrative jobs and those in less gainful employment. However they warn that students from affluent families could avoid taking out loans if the repayment terms are made less attractive, which would undermine any attempts to make them pay more. “This is an inevitable trade-off that policymakers seeking to reform the system in future would have to make,” they say in a report published today.