Tories want Scots to start paying for university

SCOTTISH students can no longer expect a free university education and should start paying back the cost of their degrees once they start work, the Scottish Tories will declare this week at a major conference.

The party is supporting plans for Scotland to follow an Australian-style fees system whereby most students pay deferred tuition fees and living costs.

In such a system, students pay a contribution towards the cost of their course, of between A$5,000 and $10,000, equivalent to between 3,000 and 6,000. The most costly courses include medicine and law, where high incomes on graduation are expected. Loans are available so students do not have to pay the money back until they begin to earn over a certain level.

Tory education spokeswoman Elizabeth Smith said that, after a decade in which Scotland has resisted tuition fees, the country "can't get away from the fact that there has to be a student contribution".

Her warnings comes after Glasgow University revealed it is facing a 35 million budget shortfall - representing 10 per cent of its budget - by 2014 as a result of budget cutbacks.

Higher education leaders in Scotland have warned that without more cash, better-funded universities elsewhere in the UK will be able to poach staff, causing a brain drain.

SNP ministers say they are open-minded about reform, except to rule out the introduction of up-front tuition fees. Education Secretary Mike Russell said last month he had not ruled out the introduction of a graduate tax in Scotland, another form of deferred payment.

Ministers in both England and Scotland are now awaiting a major review by former BP chairman Lord Browne into the future of university funding. It is widely expected to recommend that English universities be allowed to remove the current cap on up-front tuition fees.

However, Business Secretary Vince Cable yesterday said ministers would not be tied down by the Browne review. But he said the cost for students south of the Border would soon have to go up.

"As a principle, universities will get less money from government for tuition and graduates will pay more... We're talking about a graduate contribution, paid for after graduation, which will reflect people's earnings. That's a basic principle," he said.

In Scotland, ministers are planning a green paper on university funding, but Smith claimed the government had failed to take quick enough action over the looming crisis.

She said: "The current system can't go on and that is coming from right across the political spectrum.We think some form of deferred fee system is the best way forward."

She added: "I think the government has been dragging its heels for far too long." The Scottish Conservative education conference will hear this week from the pioneer of the Australian fees system, Professor Bruce Chapman, who claims that by ensuring fees are not "up-front" payable, students from poorer backgrounds are not deterred.