Starter for 10

A modest proposal as we await the review of tertiary education funding, and the condition of universities on the island of Ireland after Brexit.

Tuition fees found themselves on the front page of The Sunday Times, again. On this occasion the paper’s social affairs editor, Nicholas Hellen, was quoting former universities minister David Willetts, who proposes a cut in the rate of interest paid on loans as a way of saving the present student finance scheme. In particular, Willetts advocates scrapping the 3 per cent above the Retail Price Index charge on repayments, which adds about £13,000 of average additional debt to a graduate by the age of 40.

Before the autumn budget, Universities UK and the Institute for Fiscal Studies published an analysis that outlined the options for interest-rate changes on loans. The results suggested that a rate change would mean very little in terms of the repayment experience of all but the highest earning graduates.