to feel that English students (but not those from the EU!) having to pay university fees in Scotland is grossly unfair?

[bamboostalks]

How can this be justified? Who can defend this? Why is this allowed?

And it is a fact that Scotland gets more money, and we don't get a government of our own, because then devolution would be inevitable.

Yanbu its nuts

Camilla, unless my dd turns out to be super genius and is guaranteed a place to read Medicine, or something similar at Cambridge, no way will she be going to UK to study, well unless she is fully aware she will fund it herself. My comment was a bit of generalisation to be honest, but leaving home to do a FE course DOES seem to be a bit of UK phenomenem.

Whilst they would only have the same number of places, the competition for every place would intensify dramatically. Consider the difference in populations between Scotland and England. In my own experience, the majority of scottish school leavers who go to uni stay in Scotland. Given that the population of England is roughly ten times that of Scotland we'd then be forced to go to England or abroad to study.

Well, and isn't that fair enough?

Scarlet, I believe there is much more interest in the English run courses at the University of Maastricht this year - and that seems to me to be a GREAT place to be a student....

As a Scot I would expect no less of our government to secure the best deal for Scottish students.

Completely agree with SeenButNotHeard! Surely attracting the very best students should be the aim for any university?

For what its worth I think Scotland should be allowed to make their own decisions but discriminating against members of the British union but not against the European Union seems wrong to me.

Yes, Maastricht and similar universities are delighted by £9k fees in England!

No, it's not. Scottish students would then probably be forced to have an even more expensive education as the majority would lose the option of living at home whilst at uni (which is very very common here) - so we would be paying fees but would also be unable to try and limit our costs by living with parents, which at least most English students can do.

I think trying to make out the Scots are being evil and anti-english is unfair. It's got bugger all to do with that. We can't afford it.

As I said unthread, Scotland is bound by EU law.

Instead of attacking the Scottish Government why not attack Westminster for putting in place the crazy fees in the first place. Education should be free for all, irrespective of where you live.

And it's not English students who pay more. It's English residents. So a Scots-born student living in England would have to pay. If you're that outraged , move to Scotland!

The Scottish Government is not being evil or anti English.

They're being pro Scottish - hardly surprising when we have an SNP government!

As an English person, I really don't think we should complain about the Scots getting their act together.

We could try doing the same.

agree with crazycarol - instead of trying to take a free education away from young people who have lived in scotland for at least three years and want to attend their local higher education institution, why not campaign to gain the same right for young people in england at english universities??

scottish people voted for a scottish government who campaigned on this promise to scottish young people...

the EU vs England thing is a legal quirk due to scotland and england not being independent nations... it's stupid, and weird, but it would be a non-issue if more English people voted for a UK government who campaigned on a no-fees promise.

It will be interesting to see if this situation is sustainable. The big Scottish universities like Glasgow and Edinburgh want more funding. I wonder if the Scottish government will find the extra money or will change the formula?

If you're a Scot living in England you still have to pay, I think you have to be resident in Scotland for three years before you're entitled to Scottish fees.
And that means anyone English living in Scotland is also entitled.
It's very complicated, but I would be seriously pissed of if my son couldn't get a place here because students south of the border were taking all the places.
it also pisses me off that should he choose an English university I couldn't afford it.
Scotland has not and never will vote in a Tory govermrnt, and I don't see why we should suffer their policies.
The answer is a devolved UK, we have to many political differences.

I don't think it's wrong that the rest of the UK has to pay - education is a devolved matter and the rest of the UK are free to vote for parties that believe in free higher education in their own parliaments.

(If it's two-fingered salute to the English, then it's the same to the Welsh and the Northern Irish - it's not all about England, you know. And it's only free for EU students because it has to be legally).

If Scotland offered free places to those outwith the country then Scottish students could be squeezed out - only those with straight A's could compete with increased numbers of applicants out of proportion to the places available. Would that be fair?

I wondered how long it would take for someone to cast up funding formulas. In return I could cast up North Sea oil revenue - the irony of which being that it was partly the availability of this that allowed the Thatcherite hegemony of the 80s to become established with the attendant political shift to the right that has made tuition fees acceptable (in some parts of the UK) in the first place.

Mishy well said.

It is not defensible a Greek, a Turk, A Pole can study for free but a person from England can't. It's thoroughly wrong.

Some folk always throw in the funding argument whilst there are some that believe that Scotland has been shoring up the rest of the UK for years

Well there will always be someone who wants to stir up some anti Scottish feeling, usually be mentioning "living off English tax payers" kind of comment - its usually on the Daily Mail site though.

Im Scottish and also British. If Scotland was such a drain on Britain's finances the Tories would have "got rid" of Scotland years ago when they were in power in the 80s, especially since Scotland will ne er ever have another Tory government, they are lucky to have 1 MP here! They didnt. And they wont now.

Mitmoo, you are clearly not reading the thread properly. Posters have explained the situation and the legalities...

England will never get a devolved government, as Britain as a country would disappear. While Scottish and welsh mps can still vote in parliament, they won't let themselves be pushed out. And Gordon brown, worst economist in the world, spent more than he took in, sold gold for peanuts, was Scottish!

Germany is made up of federal parliaments with devolved responsibilities and it seems very much still here.