The idea
The amount of taxation the govt reaps from an employee over their working career is rather large to say the least. The higher paid a person is the greater this taxation will be. Given a persons pay scale is usually directly linked to their education then university graduates will end up recouping higher tax revenue for the govt. Both directly in income tax and indirectly from corporation tax from the businesses they sucsessfully work for. Given that students are paying for their education it seems only fair that the govt pays a graduation lump sum gratuity to students for their graduation. This sum could be doubled if the student signs a weiver for it to be paid as a lump sum deposit into a personal pension scheme.
Why is it important?
Education is important and so is pension provision. This way more students will aim to stay on in school to get into university. So more jobs will remain available for the 30+ age group that university drop outs would gravitate too. The importance of pension planning will be tackled early in life and with an incentive too. The govt could recoup this initial down payment through corporation tax that the student eventually works for. This will make the employeer consider the merits of the work offered and whether an undergraduate is really needed or whether a competant well educated non graduate could do the work. thus reduce the clamouriing for any job situatiion now which puts non graduates out of work.