...decision to increase tuition fees? To be honest as a high school pupil hoping study law at Glasgow University in the future I am very relieved by the announcement for several reasons:
Due to the decision of the Con-Dem Coalition to triple tuition fees, Scotland would otherwise have been invaded by "tuition refugees" from England wanting to avoid fees. This would have made it even more difficult for SCOTTISH students such as myself to get into Scottish Universities already flooded with students from England- Edinburgh University actually has more English students than Scottish students!
Scottish students also have difficulties in applying for English universities in that UCAS refuses to give SQA Higher qualifications the credit they deserve. The only means of getting into an English university is to either go to private school to sit A-Levels or get Advanced Highers which are far more challenging than A-Levels in that the course is sat over one year instead of two. My school only allows pupils to do two Advanced Highers because the pass rate is so low (English Universities ask for three as a minimum
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Even by raising tuition fees for other UK students, the maximum £6500 is STILL a third less than what English Universities charge English students. Scottish students wishing to study in England will have to pay the £9000 fees so you could (I do) argue that Scotland is at a disadvantage.
The reason other UK students are charged fees is because they do not live in Scotland and therefore do not pay taxes in Scotland. Free Higher Education is a policy of the devolved Scottish Parliament that is not funded in ANY WAY by Westminster, especially due to the spending cuts imposed by Tories who (with 1 seat out of 55 in Scotland) have no mandate to rule us!
By the way, the reason EU students get free University Education in Scotland is not due to discrimination against the English. EU rules mean that students from other EU states must be treated the same as domestic students. The Scottish Government only intended free fees for Scottish students and this rule actually costs us a lot of money as we have to pay for students who will not have contributed taxes to pay for the education. As England, Wales and Northern Ireland are not EU states as they are part of the UK so they are charged (STILL HEAVILY SUBSIDISED) fees.
And also to all those readers from the South East of England, you do not subsidise us- if anything we subsidise YOU. Scotland has lost over a billion pounds in lottery grants to pay for YOUR Olympics. Where did you think our oil goes? A Freedom of Information request recently saw the release of The Gavin McCrone North Sea Oil Report commissioned by the Tory Government in the 1970s. The report suggested that Scotland would "tend to be in chronic surplus to a quite embarrassing degree" if given control of the oil. I'm very sorry for politicising this but it is an argument I read about often in the Daily Mail...
Due to the decision of the Con-Dem Coalition to triple tuition fees, Scotland would otherwise have been invaded by "tuition refugees" from England wanting to avoid fees. This would have made it even more difficult for SCOTTISH students such as myself to get into Scottish Universities already flooded with students from England- Edinburgh University actually has more English students than Scottish students!
Scottish students also have difficulties in applying for English universities in that UCAS refuses to give SQA Higher qualifications the credit they deserve. The only means of getting into an English university is to either go to private school to sit A-Levels or get Advanced Highers which are far more challenging than A-Levels in that the course is sat over one year instead of two. My school only allows pupils to do two Advanced Highers because the pass rate is so low (English Universities ask for three as a minimum
)Even by raising tuition fees for other UK students, the maximum £6500 is STILL a third less than what English Universities charge English students. Scottish students wishing to study in England will have to pay the £9000 fees so you could (I do) argue that Scotland is at a disadvantage.
The reason other UK students are charged fees is because they do not live in Scotland and therefore do not pay taxes in Scotland. Free Higher Education is a policy of the devolved Scottish Parliament that is not funded in ANY WAY by Westminster, especially due to the spending cuts imposed by Tories who (with 1 seat out of 55 in Scotland) have no mandate to rule us!
By the way, the reason EU students get free University Education in Scotland is not due to discrimination against the English. EU rules mean that students from other EU states must be treated the same as domestic students. The Scottish Government only intended free fees for Scottish students and this rule actually costs us a lot of money as we have to pay for students who will not have contributed taxes to pay for the education. As England, Wales and Northern Ireland are not EU states as they are part of the UK so they are charged (STILL HEAVILY SUBSIDISED) fees.
And also to all those readers from the South East of England, you do not subsidise us- if anything we subsidise YOU. Scotland has lost over a billion pounds in lottery grants to pay for YOUR Olympics. Where did you think our oil goes? A Freedom of Information request recently saw the release of The Gavin McCrone North Sea Oil Report commissioned by the Tory Government in the 1970s. The report suggested that Scotland would "tend to be in chronic surplus to a quite embarrassing degree" if given control of the oil. I'm very sorry for politicising this but it is an argument I read about often in the Daily Mail...