Kenny Farquharson: Action is needed now on Scots universities

His Ucas form has been filled in, his personal statement sweated over and his preferred courses chosen. True, his idea of what university offers seems to put undue emphasis on cheap lager in the union bar and close proximity to good gigs at the Barrowland ballroom. Nonetheless, the hope is he will also - perhaps inadvertently - learn something that will help improve his life chances in the big bad world of work.

So as a parent I've been taking a particularly close interest in how the SNP government is dealing with the question of how we pay for our young people to go to university. And I'm not happy. Why? A number of reasons, but mainly because I'm worried that when Scottish university administrators start sifting through applications next month, they are going to find a deluge of requests from English students fleeing the fees revolution south of the Border. And who can blame these teenagers for high-tailing it north after Westminster's decision to raise the cost of a three-year degree to 27,000?

The fee refugees have a vague idea that a degree in Scotland is going to be a hell of a lot cheaper than one down south. This weekend, in family homes across England, the 'send' button is being pressed on Ucas online applications to Scotland's world-renowned centres of learning, and English students are keeping their fingers crossed for good news.

So where does that leave Scottish teenagers like my son? Will they now be expected to come up with better exam results than would have been the case, to compete with the cream of the expected English influx? Will there be any kind of weighting of applications to give preference to Scottish applicants? Is that idea even legal? Will there be some kind of quota system for Scottish students at Scottish universities? If so, will it apply to all universities or just some? If it's the latter, which ones?

These are the questions being asked in tens of thousands of homes across the land. And I see no sign of an answer to any of them from Mike Russell, the secretary for education in the Scottish cabinet. This week he will publish a discussion document on the long-term future of higher education. But on the short-term future he is silent, and it is not good enough.

The mistake Russell has made is one that comes naturally to many Nationalists. It is to assume that Scotland somehow exists in a vacuum, especially where our relationship with England is concerned. There is little appreciation that even if Scotland gained independence, we would still have to react to major political decisions south of the Border, and react fast. Otherwise we will be left flatfooted or disadvantaged, or both. On the issue of university finance, we are simply not reacting fast enough.Applications for entry in 2011 are being made now, and within weeks, universities will start deciding which fortunate teenagers will get one of the increasingly scarce undergraduate places. If Russell has something to say on the criteria they should use, he had better be quick.

England's students are now in no doubt what lies ahead for them. Scottish students are still in the dark. Russell's green paper this week will set out the options, but it is inconceivable that any new strategy can become law until next summer at the earliest, when Scotland may have a new party in power. Will Scotland really get its act together to bring in a new system in time for the autumn of 2012, when the new English regime comes into force? Prospectuses for Scottish universities for 2012 entry need to go to the printers in March next year - that is in just three months time. They will contain no details of how the courses will be paid for, and what, if any, contribution will be required from the student.

Away from the question of timing there is, of course a separate debate on the SNP's favoured solution on who should ultimately pay for higher education. The Nationalists' answer, as we report today, is likely to be that taxpayers will foot the entire bill. With money so tight, and with so many frontline services about to be brutally slashed, will voters be happy to see so much taxpayers' cash subsidising the education of the wealthy? When midwife numbers are cut and child protection services axed, will ordinary voters be relieved that well-heeled teenagers from Bearsden and Morningside and Broughty Ferry are being spared the inconvenience of having to contribute to their education?

The expectation, certainly among Scotland's university principals, was that some form of student contribution - possibly a graduate tax - would be introduced. In this column slot in September, Russell wrote: "The harsh truth is that this review of English funding will throw up real challenges to Scotland and we need to devise the best means of meeting them. That's why we must work together to find a solution that gives our universities and colleges a sustainable and stable set of solutions...We will consider all sensible ideas, no matter how radical." Now it seems the "radical" solution is, er, no change whatsoever.

What has happened? Has Russell's decision to kick the issue into the long grass of next summer been overruled by First Minister Alex Salmond? Where in the shrinking Scottish budget will the money come from to allow Scottish universities to compete with their English rivals, with no student contribution? It is hard to see this as anything other than electoral opportunism, with the SNP ignoring economic realities and instead opting for a policy that will give it a distinctive position for the Holyrood campaign. Good politics? We'll see. Good government? No way.