Last week’s poll: funding higher STEM education

Our poll in response to the government’s review of higher education funding attracted 379 responses, but half of respondees declined to pick one of our suggested options. The option attracting the largest number responses was for variable fees to reflect the cost of running different courses, with 20 per cent of the vote; a sliding graduate tax to repay higher education costs attracted 16 per cent. Former education secretary Justine Greening’s suggestion of a graduate tax to pay into a higher education fund to pay for future students’ studies attracted 14 per cent of responses.

There was no clear trend in the comment section to pick out a favourite solution, but of the 41 comments we received from readers, there seemed to be some support for the state picking up the full cost of science engineering and technology higher education.

‘Sally’ noted: "We do need to fund higher education in some way, but the present system is unsustainable, and for students from disadvantaged backgrounds who do not have the parental bank to help them out, we have seen real hardship. A graduate tax seems a sensible system as it is related to pay rates, but the maintenance grants need to be brought back and be independent of parental ability to pay.”