Zero fees for EU nationals attending Scottish Unis

[Tinkobell]

I struggle to get my head around this. Scotland have decided that Scottish children get their fees paid for by the government .....fine with that, their choice, democracy etc. If an English kid wants to attend a Scottish Uni....they must pay fees as per south of the border; again, I have no issue. However, if an English person decides to upsticks and go live in France or Spain etc, then they send their child to a Scottish Uni, then fees are completely free....paid for by Scottish government!!!! why is this? Does anyone know? Is it a reciprocal agreement? It feels like a frivolous give-away!

[howabout]

As a Scot, I would counter that the inevitable consequence of no cap and ever increasing fees in England has been to provide an irresistible incentive towards expansion at the expense of quality. This is even more the case given the lack of investment in 16-18 education in England.

[user150463]

I didn't claim the English funding system is ideal - but the reality is that it is much easier to deliver high quality education and research with adequate funding.

Note that the fees in England are not "ever increasing". They were frozen from 2012-2017, increased by a tiny £250 per year in 2017, and have now been frozen again. In real terms, the fees charged have actually fallen since 2012. Again, if this continues, the inevitable consequence is reduction in education quality - I know of many departments planning to reduce the number of different topics they teach, to bring costs down.

The lack of investment in English 16-18 education is an important, but separate, issue.

[TonTonMacoute]

If I remember correctly, when the Scottish government announced this policy there was talk of a legal challenge, as EU regulations state that all EU citizens should be treated equally, and the policy was unfair to rUK students.

In the event, the court ruled that if the legal challenge failed then the group bringing the case would have to pay all the legal costs of the Scottish government, and they decided it was too big a risk, and the case was dropped.

As others have said, there is growing evidence that this policy doesn’t seem to be helping Scottish students particularly, especially those from poorer backgrounds. When I visited St Andrews with DS it seemed to be stuffed to the gills with Americans, although I understand it is only about 15%. They were criticised recently for favouring foreign students, but they argued that they needed the money.

[rogueantimatter]

The scottish unis get a measly £1,800 pa per scottish student from the scottish govt.
Funding for FE courses has been cut massively.

Scottish students studying in england pay full english fees and get the less generous scottish loan. This is repayable once graduates earn a meagre £ 17,500 pa. Payable for 35 years. However the interest on loans is capped at the rate of inflation. Scottish students earning between 17 and 26k for many years after graduating will have to pay back a similar sum to english graduates earning the same, despite having their fees paid. I think.

My scottish DS is studying in London. There was 1, yes just 1 place on the only course of its kind he wanted to do in scotland, which he got, but he still turned it down, as studying in London seems a better investment in any hope of making a living in his chosen field (music) tbh he may as well have taken a vow of poverty, but that's for another thread.

[TinklyLittleLaugh]

My DD2 (English) is at Trinity College Dublin. We have been told there will be no fee changes for the duration of the course, regardless of Brexit.

[CraftyGin]

My DD is studying Economics at Edinburgh. Her course is roughly 30% Scotland/EU, 30% International and 40% rUK.

When DD received her offer, it was originally AAA. A few weeks later, they made it AAB, the ABB.

The only downside to studying in Edinburgh vs an equivalent place in England is the four year course, but this has lots of advantages too, especially for a course like economics. Other Scottish universities waive the fees for the fourth year.

DD is loving Edinburgh, btw.

[CraftyGin]

Maintenance loans are determined by your local authority of residence. My DD2 gets about £3500 for Edinburgh. DD1 is entitled to about £5000 for London, but she doesn’t take it.