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Alan Ryan's reminder that free higher education went with income-tax rates of 33 per cent or more unwittingly gave us plan C: reduce the standard rates to 20 per cent; raise the higher rates progressively to 90 per cent; and close loopholes that allow corporations to avoid tax at a cost to the Exchequer of ? billion a year.

That would give the universities the ?10 billion they need, claw back some of the pay rises the vice-chancellors awarded themselves and leave some for other underfunded public services.

Pat Brady
London Metropolitan University