Many people are unable to achieve their goals in life because of the heavy debt burden which prospective university students are presented with. The perception that in order to get a good education, one must laden oneself with £30,000+ in debt to cover tuition fees and living costs, is a powerful disincentive to continue education post-18. That’s why I welcome Business Secretary Vince Cable’s announcements today on higher education reform.

The headline suggestion that Mr. Cable has announced today is the replacement of the up-front tuition fee system with a “graduate tax” which would see graduates paying back their student debt through the tax code. The current system already has a link between payback of debt and earnings post-graduation; graduates start to pay back their government-lent tuition fees when they earn £15,000 or above.

The proposed graduate tax would alter the balance between state and individual in a positive way – instead of handing out debt at the start of university, and therefore making students dependent on the state early on, the state pays for one’s education with the bargain that the state will create a job for each graduate in order to be able to pay that debt back. Instead of a large handout of debt, one’s education is paid for at the point of use by the state.

I would like to see more initiatives like this, and I think Labour lost an opportunity to transform the culture of this country by making people slaves to the state instead of freeing people up to achieve their own goals. Tax credits is an example of this: instead of removing people from paying tax, you spend the same amount as the revenue you would lose by reducing the tax burden on the lower-middle income groups on handing out money each week or month to those people, making them clients to state handouts. It even costs more than a tax burden reduction would, because of administrative costs. Tax credits are an amazing achievement of the Labour government but the same goal could be achieved at the same time as making people feel independent and in charge of their own destinies.

Ed Miliband, one of the front-runners in the Labour leadership contest, supports the proposed Graduate Tax:

"the Graduate Tax is a fairer alternative (to tuition fees), and one I’ve been arguing for for some time"

The Graduate Tax will make it easier for people from less privileged backgrounds to become socially mobile through education. This is one of Labour’s principles is it not? Therefore, the whole of the Labour Party should support Cable’s proposal today and work towards removing huge up-front tuition fees which keep those less well-off from achieving their aspirations.

Ideally we would scrap tuition fees for people from certain socio-economic backgrounds altogether.