This item was published during the term of a previous administration that ended in April 2007
Listen
University fee rise
20/07/2005
Scottish university tuition fee levels are to rise from
2006 with a separate higher rate for medical courses, it
was announced today.
Lifelong Learning Minister Nicol Stephen set out
specific Executive proposals to protect the interests of
Scottish students in the light of the introduction of
variable fees in England.
Mr Stephen said that eligible Scottish-domiciled
students will continue to have their fees paid for them by
the Student Awards Agency for Scotland (SAAS) and will
therefore be unaffected by these changes.
Following the passing of the Further and Higher
Education (Scotland) Bill in April, which gave Ministers
the power to raise fee levels with the approval of
Parliament, and an Executive consultation on what those
fees should be, the Executive intends to:
- raise the general tuition fee
level in Scotland from £1,200 to £1,700;
- set a higher rate for medicine of
£2,700 - recognising the particular demand for places
at Scottish medical schools and the acute difficulties
of NHSScotland in retaining graduates in Scotland;
- ensure that all self-funding
students ordinarily resident in Scotland (ie those who
do not have their fees paid for them by SAAS) will
continue to pay fees at their current rates, rather
than the increased levels; and
- establish a means tested fee
waiver scheme of up to £300 per student for UK and EU
students not entitled to full or partial tuition fee
support from SAAS.
Mr Stephen said:
"We have to strike the right balance between protecting
the interests of Scottish domiciled students and ensuring
Scotland continues to be an attractive destination for all
students. Fees should be sufficiently high to affect demand
but not too high to price Scottish universities out of the
UK market. With this package of measures, I believe we've
got it right.
"There is a real and pressing need to rebalance the
relative costs of study between Scotland and elsewhere in
the UK after the introduction of top-up fees of up to
£3,000 in England next year. We have a duty to Scottish
students to ensure they continue to enjoy fair access to
study at Scottish institutions. For students from the rest
of the UK, we want them to consider Scotland as the right
option, not the cheap option.
"Under these proposals, which we will put before the
Scottish Parliament, eligible Scottish students will
continue to have their fees paid by SAAS. Self-funding
students ordinarily resident in Scotland will not pay any
more than they do currently. And any eligible Scottish
student who goes to study in England will be entitled to a
non-means tested loan to meet the cost of fees in English
institutions."
Turning to medicine, Mr Stephen said:
"Demand for places at Scottish medical schools is
already acute - the ratio of applications to acceptances is
10:1 in Scotland compared to a UK average of 3:1. We also
know that Scottish graduates from schools here are twice as
likely to be working for NHSScotland ten years after
graduation compared to students from the rest of the
UK.
"The new separate fee of £2,700 is at a level comparable
with those being set in England, and is one part of a wider
Executive response to the Calman Review of Basic Medical
Education announced recently by Andy Kerr."
The Minister concluded:
"We have made our priorities clear. These measures will
now be included in a draft order and laid before Parliament
in the autumn, where I hope they will receive the full
backing they deserve."
Self-funded students: there are around 7,300 Scottish
and non-UK EU students (2002-03 figures) not entitled to
tuition fee support from SAAS because they have already
received support to study at the same level. This includes
students studying for a second first degree, students who
repeat one or more years, and students with an HND who
enter higher education in first year and are therefore
liable to pay tuition fees for one year.
Means-tested waiver scheme: a recommendation of the
Implementation Advisory Group (IAG), set up by the
Executive to offer advice on, and oversee the
implementation of, new tuition fee arrangements. Waivers
will range from £100 to £300 per annum, on a means tested
basis. This will be funded from the savings which should
accrue to the Executive's budget (estimated at around £2
million on full roll-out) following the new funding
arrangements. The operational details of the fee waiver
scheme will be announced in due course.
The then Lifelong Learning Minister, Jim Wallace, first
outlined plans to protect the interests of Scottish
students in June 2004. One of the recommendations in the
third phase of the Executive's Higher Education Review had
been to take action on cross-border student flows to
anticipate changing patterns of demand after 2006. The
Parliament's Enterprise & Culture Committee, as part of
their Scottish Solutions report, also highlighted this
issue.
The Further and Higher Education (Scotland) Bill was
passed on 20 April 2005. The Executive consultation paper
on fee levels was published on 5 April, and the
consultation closed on 30 May. A summary of responses to
the consultation and full transcripts of those responses
that the Executive has been given permission to publish are
available on the Scottish Executive website.