Sir, – I notice that there are calls for a large increase in higher-education fees, and the introduction of an income-contingent loan scheme to meet these.
While understandable, given the pressures caused by an unfunded and substantial increase in both productivity and enrolment in the third-level sector, these calls are premature.
The current statistics for the UK suggest that such schemes may be little more than an expensive and inefficient way of delivering a state subsidy to higher education. They seem to decrease part-time student uptake, and it is not yet clear what the effect on inter-generational fairness will be. It is credibly suggested that adding student loans to an economy where housing and childcare remain very costly might be risky.
The Cassells report makes explicit that it did not engage with any of these issues.
In my view, before such a policy is introduced a much more rigorous analysis of the impact will be necessary. At the moment, it is premature to call for this policy to be adopted. – Yours, etc,
ANTHONY STAINES,
Professor of Health Systems,
School of Nursing
and Human Sciences,
Dublin City University,
Dublin 9.