The case for a business education tax

Access to higher education is a central driver of social and economic fairness. Making it achievable and affordable for all who would benefit is a policy challenge any civilised society must meet. Yet the direction of policy in recent decades has been to make the cost of going to university more expensive, not less.

UCU proposes instead that, as has happened in Germany in 2014, tuition fees should be abolished.

Rather than charge students for their education, we would charge large, profitable employers who benefit from the plentiful supply of graduates through a new Business Education Tax (BET). This innovative, practical and radical approach produces more money for higher education than the current tuition fee scheme, and costs less to administer.

UCU policy briefing: The case for a business education tax, Feb 15 [258kb]