To be gobsmacked at how lucky we are in Scotland with our low tuition fees? Hats off to you lot elsewhere in the UK - and foreign students!

[49CremeEggs]

Completed my first degree in my teens to early twenties. Got it completely free thanks to SAAS.

I'm starting a second unrelated undergraduate degree in September for which i will have to fund the last two years myself (it's an allied health professional course, so SAAS will still pay the first two years). Each year costs approx £1,850, so I hope to save £4,000 by the time i'm due to start my third year.

However, for the rest of the UK, it's £9,000 a year! For foreign students coming here to study, it's £13,500 a year

Why on earth does it vary so greatly? It's completely unfair.

Makes me realise just how lucky i am to be in Scotland. And i hope SAAS is still around in twelve years' time when my dd will (hopefully) be starting to think about uni.

Not meaning to sound patronising, but hats off to all you non-Scottish students. How on earth can anyone afford to study elsewhere? Do you get loans?

I took out a loan for living expenses during my first degree. Think it totalled to under £3000 for the whole course.

Safe to say, if i wasn't living in Scotland, i'd have moved here in a jiffy if it meant no tuition fees.

[NordicNoir]

Sorry for having an opinion about the ecomonic climate my children will be growing up into - I am NOT a "hover mum" as you suggest andubelievethat -of course they have to stand on their on 2 feet, but that doesn't mean I can't be concerned about what the future hold for them!

FWIW I think youth unemployment and debt is an issue for the whole society... it is the taxes of the working generation that will pay for the welfare state, and if there's no jobs for our young people here, and they are crippled by debt, they're going to bugger off and be paying their taxes to another country!

[LessMissAbs]

Like a lot of SNP policies, its unsustainable in the long term and the taxpayer ie your daughter will end up paying for it through higher taxes, which will either be levied via Scotland only if independence or independence-lite happens, through existing Council Tax or on the UK as a whole. Such a high proportion of the workforce here in Scotland (1/3) work in the public sector that such fees simply aren't sustainable long term. Its also driving English students away from studying in Scotland.

[ubik]

Some lovely sentiments here.

It's up to the Scottish government to Diwns it's money on what is important - it had chosen free universities, free prescriptions and free care for the elderly. It isn't perfect but I wholeheartedly support its values.

[ubik]

Sorry 'to spend' damn phone

[VenusRising]

Well they could go and study in Ireland for free, if they had an irish grandparent, and got an irish passport.
Americans fill the universities in Ireland, as the Irish have no fees, and someone has to pay for the education!

Maybe we should all export our students, might be good for the little darlings (and certainly would mean they did their own laundry)?

[Tailtwister]

Well, I think those who are benefiting now are luckily, but I don't see the situation as sustainable. I do find it amazing though that EU students don't have to pay fees but those from England do!

I don't see it lasting much longer. Soon we'll be forced to go the same way as everywhere else.

[fanjoforthemammaries7850]

Love these threads..when all the bitter resentful Tories tell us they wouldn't want to live here.

Thank God for that, I say, so everyone is happy!

[Dottiespots]

Its really good here in wales too. For example....if your doing a course with the OU here in Wales it will cost £475 for the year and in England its £1275.00. At that price I couldnt not study for a degree.

[SamuelWestsMistress]

It'll be one of the first things to go if we get independence. Completely unstastainable! But Alex Salmond King Of All The Scots won't telly you this. Because he is too busy eating pies wants votes to live the Braveheart dream.

[DumSpiroSpero]

Totally agree with isitme

Either we are all one United Kingdom with equality in terms of education etc, or we're not.

Can't see full devolution happening all the while the English taxpayer is subsidising free uni, prescriptions & elderly care for the Scottish.

[fanjoforthemammaries7850]

"Scotland generates 9.6 per cent of UK revenue in return for 9.3 per cent of UK spending, which means Scotland was in a stronger financial position than the UK as a whole to the tune of £2.7 billion in 2010-11, which equates to over £500 per person.?

Yes..that article really proves your point

[Auntmaud]

Now Euphemia, as an English Tory this is one of the reasons I hope and pray for Scottish Independence :

NO LABOUR GOVT EVER AGAIN IN ENGLAND- NOT EVER!

What a thought!

[fanjoforthemammaries7850]

Ok..we are all agreed independence is a good thing

[awaynboilyurheid]

where did the idea that the elderly get free care come from ? I know a lot of people whose savings and homes are paying their care home fees ?

[LadyBeagleEyes]

Oh yes Euphemia, that is the reason I'd vote for Independence.
I voted Devolution during the Thatcher years, and it's probably the best vote I ever made.
I do believe in the Union and would be sad to see it go, but if the alternative is the sort of policies we have now, with a Government that we never voted for, I'd rather take the risk and vote for Independence, than be ruled by people who have no mandate to govern Scotland.

[determinedma]

Op you are lucky SAAS paid up.
Dd was awarded a place last September. saas was so slow dealing with her claim she lost her place in November. I have since had a formal apology from the CEO of SAAS apologising for their part in dd loading her uni place. That helps!
Is it true it is free to study in Ireland if grandparents are Irish?

[determinedma]

Losing, not loading

[Auntmaud]

Amen to that ladybeagle. It is how much of Middle England felt during the Labour years.

[determinedma]

And yes, the free care for all elderly is nonsense. Ask my elderly father whom is desperately trying to die at home so he doesn't have to sell his house to go into care.
And remember, in this land of milk and honey, adults die younger than in any other European country thanks to high rates of heart disease and alcohol related problems. Still want to live here?

[andubelievedthat]

YES! Samuelwestmistress ! totally , all those wankers sucking it up for christs sake! as previously said " the mob is so predictable " here comes the bill !> does not matter which country ones little lovies fuck of to live in , no other country is any diff. and a helluv a lot are , once you are there, a lot worse , otherwise we would all be trying to adapt our system to theirs , try ,for example ,Switzerland> hellonfuckingearth(i lived there for a while) unless one is financially "minted" nothing is much diff.wherever you end up , i could pull, whatever hair i have left, out re this >>"in Scotland everything is free" it ranks along side puff the magic dragon was in fact >still there !

[Cubtrouble]

Where do I vote for Scottish independence? Can't wait for that, you'll all be paying then because England won't be footing the bill.

Op your question is smug. Oh goodness me how do you poor folk pay? Do you have to get loans? Ffs no we can't afford to go we have to go to work to pay for all the scots to get theirs for free.

[anonymosity]

My UK university fees were free (before the introduction of student loans) and my first year accommodation was 20 quid a week (including full cooked breakfasts and cleaners)...