Students’ oppose government fees plan

Sep 9 2011 by Andy Newport, Paisley Daily Express

STUDENT leaders at Paisley’s university have pleaded with education chiefs not to hit their English, Welsh and Northern Irish pals with a huge yearly bill for their degree courses.

The Scottish Government is to allow universities north of the border the right to charge students from the rest of the UK fees of anywhere between £1,800 and £9,000 a year.

It comes after Westminster bosses decided to implement student fees south of the border.

However, Scottish students and those from EU countries who attend uni north of the border do not have to pay a penny.

Edinburgh University bosses have already said they will charge their undergraduates from the rest of the UK the full amount – making the capital one of the most expensive places in Britain to study.

Now University of the West of Scotland student president Garry Quigley has pleaded with bosses at the Paisley campus to go easy on “rest of UK” students.

He said: “We are fundamentally opposed to tuition fees and this includes allowing Scottish universities the freedom to charge “rest of UK” students £9,000 for their education.

“As we’ve seen in the past few days with Edinburgh University, this new arrangement means that Scotland will become the most expensive place to study in the whole of the UK for these students.

“Due to the fact that the Scottish Government has allowed Scottish universities the freedom to set their own fees, the Students’ Association has turned its attention to lobbying the university to make sure they don’t set anywhere near the level of fees that other universities have charged.

“In addition to this, we are campaigning to make sure the university devotes a portion of the fees they will bring in into a bursary scheme that will help support those students from poorer backgrounds accessing a university education.”

Mr Quigley has also dispatched a thick file marking out the UWS students association’s opposition to student fees to the Scottish Government after they launched a consultation process.

Now he is urging Education Minister Mike Russell to ensure that piles of cash gathered in by universities like Edinburgh are spread among others across Scotland.

Mr Quigley added: “We are very concerned about how this new system will benefit all the universities in Scotland – including those institutions which have a low amount of ‘rest of UK’ students.

“We are aware that the Education Minister is planning to distribute the teaching grant across all universities in Scotland. However, we feel this doesn’t do enough and, in turn, are proposing that a new mechanism is installed that will help redistribute the incoming fees across all of Scotland’s universities – regardless of how many ‘rest of the UK’ students they have.

“In recent times, the Scottish Government has been a great champion for student issues and this was evident when they scrapped the graduate endowment.

“Without the ability to raise taxes, the Scottish Government has to respond to the environment that it is in. Doing nothing and leaving the system the way it is would not be an option for the Scottish Government.

“However, we are still concerned with some of the proposals outlined and these concerns were highlighted in the consultation response that we sent to the Scottish Government.”

A spokesman for the University of the West of Scotland said they are currently consulting on ‘rest of UK’ fee levels, including talks with its Students’ Association.

He added: “Proposals will be considered by the University Court at its meeting on September 27.

“Once the Court has approved the university’s position on RUK fees, UWS will advise the Scottish Funding Council and publish its 2012/13 fee levels, including arrangements for student fee discounts/hardship support.

“UWS will not make public any information about proposed fee levels in advance of a decision by the University Court.”