Forking out by degrees

Why can't the government do the obvious and introduce a tax - not only for future but also for current graduates (Students must pay more - MPs, July 9)? Messing about with interest rates for student loans does nothing to encourage working-class kids to overcome fear of debt, the major obstacle to their application to university. Interest rate hikes would not produce enough revenue to solve problems of staffing, infrastructure, access recruitment and research competitiveness which have been thrust in the government's face by reports from Gareth Roberts and JM Consulting.

Universities UK reckons £9.94bn is needed to safeguard Britain's position as a provider of 21st century higher education. This seems a lot but the alternative is Britain left behind, with research innovation and hi-tech industrial jobs vanishing overseas while we import more skilled service industry workers. Let's hope that in preparing his comprehensive spending review Mr Brown is more clear sighted and open minded than Margaret Hodge, the worst higher education minister since Kenneth Baker.
Prof Michael J Rennie
University of Dundee
m.j.rennie@dundee.ac.uk

· It is staggering that the Commons education committee can seriously recommend higher tuition fees and the end of so-called soft loans. Students leave university with crippling debts and these proposals will put higher education beyond the means of most people. Where will this leave the government's target of 50% of under-30s taking higher education, let alone the desire to change the social composition of students?

The government should ensure that universities are properly funded and reintroduce student grants. Otherwise student numbers will continue to drop, universities will close, and higher education will become the privilege of the rich.
Paul Foley
Manchester
p.foley@unison.co.uk

· Scrap student loans and fee contributions: instead add 1% or 2% to the tax rates of all graduates once they exceed the average national salary. This would remove the deterrent to students from poorer families entering higher education, collection costs would be minimal, payment would be proportional to the financial benefits gained from being a graduate, and those who entered the poorly paid professions like nursing and teaching would barely cross the average salary threshold.
Grahame Collyer
St Dominick, Cornwall
gcollyer@devonportgirls.plym.sch.uk

· Even in the unlikely event that top-up fees and commercial loans raised extra money for universities, and not for the chancellor, these measures will hit hardest those who can least afford it. If the committee was serious, it would push the government to fund higher education properly, abolish tuition fees and guarantee every student a living maintenance grant.
Kat Fletcher and four others
National Union of Students executive committee
cfe@fsmail.net

· Even if though it's 10 years away, should I be persuading my nephews to save for university? Once that has been answered, can someone tell them how to juggle their finances once they have their student debt, to include planning for pensions?
Elliott Hall
Sheffield

· After seven years of training, my starting salary as a full-time university lecturer was below the threshold that required me to begin repaying my student loan.
Dr Craig Jeffrey
University of Edinburgh