A zero-sum game

Finally, some good news in the debate over education funding in Scotland. The Scottish Government's spending review, with which the SNP administration has committed to a £7,000 minimum income for the poorest students, protected the Education Maintenance Allowance and explicitly rejects the introduction of tuition fees for Scottish students, is a welcome relief after eighteen months of bad news for students. The commitment to widening access implicit in the minimum income provision and the vouchsafing of the EMA is commendable, but there are also big holes in the review's conclusions.

Funding cuts to further education will attract fewer headlines than the spectre of tuition fees, but they are no less detrimental to an educated society. NUS Scotland note in their response to the review that colleges are "an educational lifeline... to some of the most excluded in our society." In this, they are absolutely correct. Protecting university places and the ability of Scottish students to achieve a degree is one thing, but if at the government slashes colleges even as it is protecting universities, the whole affair is at risk of becoming a zero-sum game. Universities and colleges serve different roles within our society, and they cannot afford to be seen as mutually exclusive.