Taxpayers across UK to foot £2bn bill for Scottish students' free university places
By Kirsty Walker 10th June 2007
Taxpayers across the country will have to foot a £2billion bill for students in Scotland to enjoy free university education under plans to be announced.
While students in England and Wales must still pay up to £3,000 a year for their studies, Scottish students will not have to pay a penny from 2009.
The move will fuel mounting anger that people in Scotland enjoy more generous public services, largely funded by English taxpayers.
The plans by the ruling Scottish National Party to scrap tuition fees will be unveiled on Wednesday and are expected to pass through the Edinburgh parliament with the support of the Greens and Liberal Democrats.
From 2011, student loans will also be wiped out and maintenance grants reintroduced.
In addition, students from the European Union will also get free university places in Scotland.
But English, Welsh and Northern Irish students will still have to pay for the privilege.
Last year the SNP pledged that any move to scrap tuition fees would also cover English students in Scotland.
But Scottish education secretary Fiona Hyslop is expected to abandon that commitment because of fears it would create a rush of English students north of the border.
There are 15,000 English undergraduates in Scotland paying £1,700 a year for a four-year degree.
On top of an average loan of £11,000, it means they leave with a typical debt of £17,800.
Students in England must pay top-up fees of up to £3,000 a year – and universities are expected to be allowed to raise their charges from 2010.
Ironically, Tony Blair had to rely on the votes of Scottish MPs to push through the introduction of tuition fees at English universities.
In the decade since devolution, Scotland has used the extra £1,500 a head it receives from Westminster to subsidise care homes for the elderly and authorise the use of a wide range of cancer drugs denied to patients south of the border.
Recent surveys suggest that English voters are increasingly concerned that Scottish MPs can vote on issues that affect only England but English MPs are unable to vote on the same issues in Scotland.
This constitutional dilemma, known as the West Lothian question, has become more topical as Scot Gordon Brown prepares to take over as Prime Minister in two weeks.
David Cameron has sought to exploit Mr Brown’s difficulties by announcing plans to block Scottish MPs from voting on legislation that applies only to England if the Tories win power.
Shadow education spokesman David Willetts said the SNP’s plans for university fees highlighted the problem.
He said: "Brown is trapped. He can hardly extol the virtues of university fees in England when his own constituents in Scotland will not be paying them."
Senior lawyers have warned that the plans could face a legal challenge from English students.
Jack Rabinowicz, a partner in the London law firm Teacher Stern Selby, said: "It further highlights the imbalance between the system in disparate parts of the United Kingdom. It’s a discriminatory regime."
Comment - as sent to the Daily Mail
Lets cut loose now. We should acknowledge that there is a lot of anti-English sentiment in Scotland and Wales, so let them go it alone. Then put in place legislation that only Englishmen sit in our parliament. Then we can put tolls on all roads leading from those two countries into ours and recouperate all the money that we've wasted on paying useless Scots and Welsh sitting in the house. K.Samuelson, Cheltenham, England
It is obvious that the British Parliament is not fit for the purpose of governing England and an English Parliament is urgently needed. And when Gordon Brown becomes Prime Minister you would then have the spectacle of the Prime Minister not being able to bring in legislation in his own country like for example education and health but will do so in a different country i.e England, that cannot be in anyone's definition fair. Kevin Wells, England
See also
The West Lothian Question
The Consequences of Devolution
James Gordon Brown
Growing demand for Scots Independence - from English
Scotland's 300-year itch 20-03-07
University funding 26-02-07
On the Barnett Formaula 26-01-07 Scottish news
Skills shortage threatens UK future
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