Come clean on tuition fees, Alex Salmond told

THERE are calls for the Scottish Government to publish guidance it has had on tuition fees in an independent Scotland.

Alex Salmond said he was confident the Scottish Government could continue to charge UK students. Picture: Neil Hanna

Should voters back separation in next year’s referendum, UK students would be classed as coming from the EU and therefore entitled to free tuition at Scottish universities. But asked about the issue in an interview with news channel Russia Today, First Minister Alex Salmond said he was confident the Scottish Government could continue to charge UK students.

“We believe we can maintain the current arrangement and we’ve got legal advice to that effect,” he said.

Conservative education spokeswoman Liz Smith said the Scottish Government had a duty to publish any advice “immediately”.

“He [the First Minister] cannot allow this to become similar to the situation with legal advice on an independent Scotland’s EU admission. He spent months denying it, not to mention thousands of pounds, only for it to emerge he hadn’t bothered asking anyone about it.”