Scottish post-grads given 18 days to pay after debt called in

Scotland's higher education funding body is attempting to claw back funds from graduates in a bid to cover the shortfall created by the abolition of the Graduate Endowment fee, The Journal has learned.

The Student Awards Agency for Scotland (SAAS), which administered the Graduate Endowment for Scottish university students before the Scottish Parliament voted to drop the fee on 28 February and continues to oversee financial aid to EU nationals, contacted post-graduate students to demand repayment of the defunct £2,289 fee within 18 days.

Students pursuing second degrees had previously been assured that their debts would be deferred until the end of their post-graduate studies.

Luke Dicken, a research student at the University of Strathclyde’s Department of Computer and Information Sciences, told The Journal: "The SAAS contacted me by post said that we now have to pay [the Graduate Endowment] by the end of the month, basically giving us 18 days to raise £2,000,” he said.

“If we are unable to do this, it seems they will expect us take a loan out from them to cover it.

“I've contacted the SAAS and been told that this isn't an error, and that they ‘sympathise’ with the situation they have been forced by the government to put us in.

“However this doesn't change the fact that every post-grad in the country has just had the rug pulled from under them and now has to try to find the money in the next two weeks, or add further to the debts we are accruing.”

The SAAS awards funding to all Scottish nationals studying at university at home and abroad. Its main function is to pay tuition fees on the behalf of Scottish students and was responsible for the administration of the graduate endowment fee. The abolition of the fee means that students graduating from 2007-onwards no longer have to pay the fee, but the scrapping of the charge does not apply retrospectively.

Mr Dicken completed his undergraduate degree in 2006, and is therefore required to pay the Graduate Endowment fee.

However, he was assured by the SAAS in 2005 that repayment would not be expected until after the end of his second degree.

Referring to the terms of his deferment, Mr Dicken said: “it has been generally understood by post-grads to be for the duration of our studies, which was not disputed when I said this to the SAAS during my query of the situation.”

Initial inquiries by The Journal appear to indicate that not all post-graduates have been issued with a demand for immediate repayment. The SAAS was unavailable for comment over the Easter weekend, however anecdotal evidence suggests a form of means testing may have occurred.