SNP accused of university elitism

THE Scottish Government has been accused of fostering “elitism” in the country’s universities by “relying on market forces” to set tuition fees.

A number of Scottish institutions have announced fees of £9,000 a year, with Edinburgh and St Andrews universities set to charge English, Welsh and Northern Irish students £36,000 for a degree.

While the fees do not apply to those from Scotland, fears have been raised that they will lead to an elitism which will ultimately affect all students.

Labour education spokesman Ken Macintosh said he was “unimpressed” by the suggestion the new fees arrangement would not affect Scottish students because the changes would impact on the nature of universities north of the Border.

His intervention came after education secretary Mike Russell said he expected less than half of Scotland’s universities to charge the maximum of £9,000 a year to students from the rest of the UK.

Heriot-Watt and Aberdeen universities have also set fees at £9,000, but capped them at a maximum of £27,000 overall, while Glasgow Caledonian will charge £7,000 a year, capped at £21,000.

Mr Russell said he expected average fees across Scotland’s 16 institutions of around £6,375.

But Mr Macintosh said the importance of the average figure was a “total illusion” as a large proportion of students coming from elsewhere in the UK opted for either Edinburgh or St Andrews.

He said: “We all know that Edinburgh and St Andrews account for just under half of all rest of UK fees. Mike Russell is relying on market forces to set fees, which will create elitism.”

Mr Russell said it was premature to make a prediction about fees, with only a handful of Scotland’s 16 universities declaring their fees to date. He added that only 14 per cent of students at Scottish universities would pay.

He said: “I’d rather there was no fees for that 14 per cent, but unfortunately this difficulty is being created by the decision of the government south of the Border to charge extraordinary fees and to change the whole way of financing education south of the Border.”

Meanwhile, the National Union of Students welcomed a pledge from the minister to make sure no student was living on an allowance of less than £7,000 a year.

Robin Parker, president of NUS Scotland, said: “Setting a minimum student income at this level would help reduce student hardship, lessen the risk of drop-out and improve Scotland’s record for attracting students from lower-income backgrounds to university.

“Currently Scotland has the lowest rates of financial support in the UK for higher education students, who are funded to live below the poverty line.

“Our research has shown that these low levels also have a real impact on students’ lives, with 36 per cent of students in Scotland saying they’ve thought about dropping out of study due to financial problems, and more than two-thirds saying they don’t receive enough support to concentrate on their studies.”