SNP defend free education for Scots

Free education for Scottish students has been protected at the launch of a Green Paper setting out a range of options for university funding.

The recent tuition fee hike south of the border has prompted the SNP to prevent what they have called fee refugees from England, Wales and Northern Ireland.

The Scottish Government’s education minister, Michael Russell, said: "Our universities deliver tens of thousands of graduates into the world of work every year and carry out not just world-leading, but world-beating, research. It is because of this 'greater good' that we believe the state must bear the primary responsibility for funding our universities.

"We do support raising fees for students from the rest of the UK, to ensure Scotland continues to be the best option, not the cheap option, for learners.”

Kenneth Gibson MSP, Vice-Convener of the Scottish Parliament’s Education Committee, commented: “Labour and the opposition parties now have to address how they will deal with the issue of university funding and student support. All of them have played their part in imposing debt, fees and poverty on students in Scotland.

“The SNP has made a clear statement to the voters of Scotland: we support the principle of free education and will never introduce tuition fees.”

Liam Burns, President of NUS Scotland said: "If fees go up in Scotland for students from the rest of the UK, it will be directly down to the Scottish Liberal Democrats and Conservative MPs that voted for the trebling of fees in the rest of the UK.

"We warned that this would be the consequence of voting to treble fees in the rest of the UK and today, the seven Liberal Democrat MPs in Scotland that failed to keep their pledge to vote against increased fees should hang their head in shame."