THE big vote this week will be for university fees, scheduled for Thursday.

This is, as all readers will appreciate, controversial. I have been contacted by a number of students, parents and teachers seeking my views and intentions on this, all of which I have received I have replied to.

Going back to 2004, when the policy of charging fees was introduced, I was dead against this policy. I am still dead against the idea that a new graduate should start their life with a mortgage size debt.

It was always wrong, and the notional target of getting 50 per cent of school leavers into university was also wrong – there just aren’t enough graduate level jobs to justify that number of graduates, especially when they had been sold an expensive education that needed paying for.

But in 2010, we are where we are: with a far larger university estate needing huge numbers of students to fund them.

Although I didn’t go to university myself, I am completely aware of why a degree can be ideal. A university education is one of the greatest drivers of social mobility there is and it is completely correct that a degree should be available to everyone.

So the trick is: how do we balance freely available university education with the funding needed to support all the universities?

I have met a number of university chancellors and they have, surprisingly (to me at least) been in favour of upping fees.

It is in balancing all these dynamics that Vince Cable has come up with the new-ish system that means that although fees jump to £9,000, repayment starts at a lower rate than currently, but only after the graduate salary reaches £21,000.

Any unpaid debt is cancelled after age 54 and the debt does not classify under credit checks as a debt (as would a mortgage or credit card debt).

More importantly, the funding goes with the student to his or her university of choice as opposed to a general fund.

So, on balance, if we are to keep university places available and thus be able to provide the level of social mobility that I think is so important, Vince Cable’s proposals are probably the best we can get given the circumstances.

That is why I will support it on Thursday, but also why I will continue to urge that we go to a more progressive solution as our nation’s finances are repaired.

On a different subject, I have been getting a few messages about publication of MP’s expenses. It may be helpful to put the record straight here and sort out any confusion as a result of last week’s article in The Shuttle.

As a result if the expenses scandal last year, all MPs’ expenses are to be published online as a matter of course. That is only right and this happened last week when IPSA published the details. I have put a link from my own website to this (www.markgarnier.co.uk) so people can take a look.

What I haven’t done is to duplicate the publication by putting it all up a second time on my website. I do hope this clears up any confusion, and my intention was merely to avoid duplicating a cost that is levied on the public purse.

MARK GARNIER, MP FOR WYRE FOREST