The Labour government and Rachel Reeves has been urged to use the Autumn Budget to increase taxes on profiteering businesses to help solve the university funding crisis.
The University and College Union (UCU) said students must not be loaded with even more debt because of previous governments’’ failure to invest in education.
New data compiled by UCU shows a 4.3% point increase in corporation tax would raise £17 billion. This, says the union, could be used as an education levy to provide universities with much needed extra funding and end its tuition fee-based system. This would still leave corporation tax, at 29,3%, below the rate set by Tony Blair (30%).
The new levy would then replace the £11bn in fees English students pay each year with publicly funded teaching grants. It would also provide an additional £4.58bn to the higher education sector, equivalent to an increase in tuition fees f up to £13,000, the level suggested by the university employer’s body.
