How many graduates does it to take pay for one student’s tuition?

Here?s a simple math problem for you to solve:?A fisherman catches, on average, 35,000 fish every year. Of that, almost half are taken?by his evil twin brother, leaving him to survive on the rest.

Suddenly, an angel appears, and tells him that, if he follows her to a new site, then he?could catch 100,000 more fish during his lifetime. But, she would keep almost 54,000?for the privilege.

The fisherman is 21. Assuming he continues fishing until he is 65, how many extra fish?per year would he catch? And, for extra credit, how many of them would he be able to?keep?

No conferring! And, whilst you work that out, here?s some light entertainment from Mr?Conway Twitty:

All done?

Okay, so, over the course of 44 years, our fisherman friend would catch an extra 2,273?(rounded) fish per year, of which the angel would take almost 1,273 (rounded) and he?would keep just over 1,000.

What the fisherman decides to do is up to your own imagination, but it is a dilemma?that will soon be facing a whole generation of university students, with grateful thanks?to Liberal Democrat pressure in the coalition, and our friend the Business Secretary, Dr Vince Cable.

The question is, if after a graduate tax is introduced the average increase in annual wage is just ?1,000, are people really going to want to go to university and burden themselves with so much debt? And if not, how is Britain?s productivity going to cope as a result.

The Chief Executive of Pizza Hut, Jans Hofma, wrote an article in The Times today (online for subscribers), claiming, rightly, that people who perform menial jobs, such as cleaners, and people who work on the ?front line? at home, such as waiters, are just as valuable to our economy as the big earners in the City ? for who else would keep their offices clean and serve them their coffee to keep them working? And who else would ensure that tourists, whether domestic or international, are looked after to the extent whereby they want to keep coming back?

But what Britain can seldom afford is a new generation of McDonald?s workers. We need scientists and surgeons as much as cleaners and cooks. Bankers and lawyers, though often derided as the scourge of the British public, all started at the same place ? university.

Can the next generation really afford to be deterred by a new ?graduate tax? (though not referred to as such by the higher education minister, grudgingly forced to accept the idea after staunch opposition), sucking away over half the financial incentive driving students into universities in the first place?

If I were the fisherman, and extra 83 fish per month would not be enough to persuade me to leave the environment I felt most comfortable in.

I just hope that the coalition, in the end, does the right thing when Lord Browne?s Higher Education Review Panel report concludes.