Proposed cuts spark fears of students being priced out of college education

Concerns have been raised about student funding in Scotland’s colleges as NUS Scotland has revealed that the current student support budget is not enough to meet requirements.

A Freedom of Information request submitted to Scottish colleges by NUS Scotland found that over half of those who responded had either used the full amount or overspent on their bursary budget this year. As a result, they are are having to enter into their own funds to provide students with the financial support needed.

Robin Parker, President of NUS Scotland said: "This analysis is incredibly worrying as it shows that even the current £95.6m budget was not enough to meet demand from the poorest students hoping to go to college just now."

The request found that, of the 28 (out of 40) respondents, 14 had spent over the full amount of their allocation and a further eight colleges had overspent. In addition to this, ten had spent more of their bursary allocation this year than last year.

The findings have come at a worrying time for college funding in Scotland as Alex Salmond’s SNP government have proposed an 11.9 per cent cut on student support to come into effect in August this year, despite pledging in the party’s manifesto to protect the college bursary budget throughout its government.

"This year we've relied on college reserves but next year, given the cuts institutions are also facing, we won't be able to do that. The SNP's manifesto was clearly right in May to promise to protect this budget throughout the parliament, but they are now absolutely wrong to be proposing an £11 million cut. This would be a cut to the poorest people in some of the poorest communities in Scotland", said Mr Parker.

This cut would mean that last year’s £95.6 million student support budget would be significantly reduced to £84.2 million, and with colleges struggling to meet demands on the current budget, NUS Scotland fear that potential students will be unable to finance their education, and that this could in turn increase youth unemployment in Scotland.

Mr Parker continued: "At a time of high unemployment and youth unemployment in particular, this drastic cut to student support could price people out of college, and force them onto benefits, undermining the Government's own efforts to tackle youth unemployment in Scotland."

NUS Scotland has already begun petitioning the proposed cuts through its ‘Our Future Our Fight’ campaign, which has garnered over 63,000 emails from students, staff and members of the community to MSPs.

In addition to opposing the lowering of the bursary fund, the campaign is also aimed at stopping cuts to college places, protecting college teaching quality, and to protecting local access.