Tuition fees vote - 'Scottish unis face a massive funding gap'

Events at Westminster yesterday were momentous, and not just for the next generation of English students, who face a trebling of tuition fees.

After a debate and vote which put the Conservative/Lib Dem alliance under massive strain, they will now pay up to 9000 a year.

But if it seemed like a distant row with little consequence in Scotland, it was no such thing.

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Most obviously, as predicted in yesterday's News, Edinburgh West MP Mike Crockart quit as a ministerial aide so he could vote against the government's plan.

He did the honourable thing, unlike many Lib Dem colleagues who campaigned against a fees increase to get elected - though nothing excuses the violence which followed the vote.

But there are wider repercussions here in the Capital and across Scotland. For a start, there is likely to be a rush of English students to attend cheaper Scots universities, forcing out some local candidates.

What's more, there is growing resentment in England that Scottish students do not face the same tuition fee rise. Unthinking critics wrongly see this as an example of what they regard as "subsidised" Scotland, alongside cheaper prescriptions and free personal care.

But that wrong-headed assessment merely clouds the even bigger issue - that under current fee plans Scotland's higher education sector is heading for a massive gap in funding compared to universities south of the border.

The Scottish Government acknowledges the problem and education minister Mike Russell has held cross-party talks on it - but his "uniquely Scottish" solution is not due until after May's elections.

That is not good enough, and it is not just the SNP that is hiding from this most important, but difficult, issue. All parties must bring forward their plans so everyone, especially students, knows what they are voting for... notwithstanding betrayals of the kind demonstrated by most Lib Dems.

Do grit yourself?

IT is hard to know whether to applaud or mock Andrew Burns for his call to shovels on the part of snowbound locals.

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Most people would agree that everyone who can help clear the frozen streets should do so, as good neighbours and good citizens.

But clearly some people won't be able to dig in - most obviously OAPs and the disabled.

And, with no plans to enforce the new by-law, it will do no more than nudge people into civic action - which the News' "S'No Bother" campaign is already doing.

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