Students who gain firsts in core subjects ‘should be exempt from fees’

STUDENTS who get first-class degrees in key subjects should not have to pay fees, an influential think tank has said.

The Adam Smith Institute said a group of 25 of the best universities in the country should be allowed to waive fees for graduates who achieve a first in what it termed “core subjects.” This would help boost Britain’s economy by steering students away from degrees which do not “contribute to the economic well-being of the nation”.

It also called for an Australian-style graduate tax instead of the current student

‘This is not to denigrate other courses … simply that they have lower potential to add economic value’

loan system, which the think-tank claimed led to anxiety and pressure on young people to repay the loans.

The paper comes amid a row over student fees after Jeremy Corbyn, the Labour leader, appeared to make an election campaign pledge to write off historic loans, before rowing back on the notion.

Angela Rayner, the shadow education secretary, admitted the policy would have cost an “unaffordable” £100 billion, while Mr Corbyn said he was unaware of the scale of debt before he discussed the idea.

In the research paper, Updating Student Finance, the Adam Smith Institute said: “Some courses are recognised to have greater potential than others to contribute to the economic well-being of the nation. It is reckoned that courses that include engineering, mathematics, medicine and the hard sciences have greater potential than some others to put the UK into the front rank of technological expertise and help its economy to advance.”

It suggested that a group of university vice-chancellors should decide on what the “core subjects” are so that they can be promoted to potential students whose fees would be waived if they achieved a first-class degree.

The paper added: “This is not to denigrate other courses, but simply to point out that they have lower potential to add economic value to the nation’s future than these ‘core’ subjects, without passing any judgment on their intellectual or academic merits.

“If a student graduated with a first class honours degree in one or more of the ‘core’ subjects at a high-quality university, their education would be regarded as paid, with no liability to the subsequent graduate tax.”

The report recognises that the student loan system in England has boosted the numbers of students going to university from poorer backgrounds but it warns that the burden for repaying loans often falls to middle or higher earners because many would not repay the debt before the 30-year cut-off point.

Students who take degrees in subjects like drama or the arts also tend to go on to achieve less-lucrative careers and are therefore less likely to repay their loans, contributing to the 45 per cent rate of uncollected money in the British system every year. The issue leaves the Government out of pocket, the report warned, adding that the system in Australia, where fees vary by degree, has a better repayment rate and just 17 per cent goes uncollected.