How is it now?

[wellhelloyou]

I've not lived in Scotland now for nearly three years. Really really want to move back but need to save up money/work out a lot of logical things for the family etc..

Can I ask, I've been watching the political situation from afar and wondered what the 'general' feeling is in Scotland these days? I'm not looking to open a heated BREXIT or Indyref post, more just interested in people's opinions if it's a bit of same as always or general feeling has changed since the GE? I know no-one can speak for 'everyone' but just interested to hear if you feel things have changed since I left nearly three years ago or just a case of same old same old.....

My OH thinks I'm mad to want to move back, especially with the political climate... I just love Scotland, it's my true home and despite everything going on I would just prefer to be back for many many reasons....

MumOf - given you've mis-understand my post as well as how a University gets it's funding perhaps you should ask for your money back?

I don't have an economics degree as i've worked since I was 17 having been brought up in poverty, but I'm pretty sure that it costs more than £2k per student in order to run a quality environment and whilst there will always be more spaces than the Scottish population would use, universities do place a cap on the students they are willing to take at under £2k a student, but then again, maybe they are just greedy and profiteering?

This is from Edinburgh Uni's own website. It's also an interesting read to look at the % of students admitted from each category:

"The Scottish Government places strict limits on the number of ‘Scotland and EU’ students that Scottish universities can admit. This means that Scottish universities are limited in the number of offers they can make to Scotland and EU applicants."

www.ed.ac.uk/student-recruitment/admissions-advice/admissions-statistics

and those figures are Scottish and EU combined, so Scottish figures alone will be less.

Not that i'm a statistician, but my gut feel is that the EU acceptance figures will be less %age wise that those for Scotland and that will slightly pull the figure down as I don't think the numbers will be as high.

My reasoning is that they charge RoW students more than RUk presumably to account for additional support they may need? So, an EU student will possibly require extra support over a Scottish student but they are still only able to charge less than £2k.

Clearly for most courses at Edinburgh, your chance of being accepted at Edinburgh is far higher if you are from anywhere other than Scotland and EU, can all those, say 75% of applicants who are rejected be less qualified or suitable than the similarly 75% of RUk or ROW students who are accepted?

Maybe the can and it's all simple statistics etc. I'm sure there are lots of factors involved but again, gut feel is that the finance has to play a large part in Scots being unable to access places in a prestigious University.

This isn't personal as both my DC have gained entry into their Uni of choice.

And this is what you can look forward to if you move back, whatever your particular position on Indy, another n years of arguing about independence, and worrying about what will happen to your jobs and savings with the uncertainty etc in the event the SNP manages to persuade some people to swing to them over Brexit...

Don’t worry someone will be along in a minute to say it’s all a wash now the UK is going for Brexit...snooze and repeat until you find yourself avoiding Scottish ‘news’.

The Times last week (12th January) reported that UCAS offer rate for EU students applying to Scottish universities had an offer rate of 75% and Scottish students 65%, so eu numbers could be higher than Scottish numbers.

Yes, EU students at Edinburgh get offered extra support for English (well they do in the science and engineering department).

I’m fine with international students numbers; 2019 intake of 129 electrical and electronic engineering students, yes it’s a lot making a huge majority, but they are helping to fund our home students. I feel all the 33 Scottish and eu numbers on that same course should be Scottish though; I would bet most EU students at Scottish universities come from very privileged backgrounds (most of my dd1 eu friends do).
If all 54 vet students were Scottish (rather than the rumoured 7) then perhaps there wouldn’t be a veterinary recruitment problem.

Most of dd1 friends from school couldn’t afford to study in Edinburgh even if they wanted to because of the accommodation and living costs, so goodness knows how the eu students can afford it on top of travelling home.

I don’t mean to come across as opposing eu students (my dd1’s lovely boyfriend is one) but I think we need a honest, open discussion with the full facts presented.

Username9959
So true!

Oops sorry!
I should have written 65% offer rate for EU students and 55% offer rate for Scottish students.

English with Scottish (and Welsh) heritage. Moved to Fife a year ago. Bloody love it. Everyone friendly and welcoming. I'm not a political beast in the slightest and, so far at least, haven't noticed any angst, everyone we know just lives their lives.

Also when we looked carefully at student loan models a couple of years back, the Scottish loan (to cove r living costs) was not written off as early as the English/ Welsh loan.

You could have a far lower debt, due to tuition fees being covered by Scottish government, but end up paying as much if not more through the Scottish version. You have to guess potential earnings of course. (Money Saving expert website was helpful.)

Jodri, you didn't come across as anti EU students at all.

I find the funding model a bit bizarre to be honest. The maximum a Scottish student can borrow even if their parents are on a modest household income is £4750. The expectation I assume is that parents will be able to top that up by £3k to get to the maximum loan plus bursery that students from the poorest incomes have. So, a household with an income of £34k before tax etc with 2 DC in uni should be providing £6k after tax to put their dc in the same position as students from poorer incomes. At the end of the day, it's a loan that needs paying back and dc have limited other ways to borrow money so I think that it's unfair to limit the amount they can borrow so much.

No account is taken as to whether they live at home or not, whether there are other DC at home or whatever.

I appreciate that this might not effect all students and that some have limited contact time and are able to work both in term time and the holidays ut there will be students that still can't afford to access higher education and they may not be those from the poorest homes.

I never said university places were uncapped for Scottish students. Of course they are! If not, you'd have potentially hundreds and hundreds on a course!
I really don't see the point in arguing about this and think we're saying the same thing- are record numbers of students from Scotland attending university? Yes. Is there a limit on the numbers accepted from Scotland? Of course! Is it highly competitive to get into Edinburgh? Yes! ( My sister got in and hated it so not end works plenty good unis out there)!
P.S Not asking for a refund yet - I'm now in education so here's hoping I can remember how to count for the sake of the young ones! 😉

We’ve managed to avoid taking out student loans so far as my dd1 worked over summer and does during term time too, It’s not easy.
I think the Scottish loan system seem very complicated and unless you have the poorest income or that money is not a problem then you are disadvantaged.
I read somewhere (can’t remember where) that the welsh system had its merits and allowed easier access for studying away from home. I don’t know the supporting arguments or enough about that system though.

I don't know enough about the other systems either but it does seem to mean that in most cases they are able to borrow enough to pay accommodation and live off even if that is very frugally. Our system gives DC living away barely enough for accommodation. DS2 lives in not the absolute bottom level halls, but nowhere near the top (he is in a flat of 5 rather than a bigger hall of 20 as we thought it would suit him better) and his accommodation costs £4520, leaving £230 for everything else if we weren't supporting him.

At the moment DC have taken out the loan but putting it to one side and hoping not to have to use it. DH and I have denied ourselves some things we'd like, new kitchen/car/holidays/cut down our ours in order to pay for accommodation and travel and food etc.

The plan is, that at the end of their course, they should have the money sitting there to either pay back or use as a deposit for a flat, start a pension or to do something else positive with depending on circumstances.

We figured it was better to have the money there if required (we obviously can't guarantee that DH and I will be able to continue to support them) and pay it back than not to take it at all. No idea if we are doing the right thing or not though

Ds has taken out the maximum loan as the interest that you pay on it is less than you can get from some savings accounts if you shop around

What's the interest rate? In England it's very high.

Iirc, 1.5%. It's essentially BoE base rate plus a wee bit.

Thanks.

Where can you get more than 1.5% interest in a savings account / other safe place ?

Asking for a friend

If you're prepared to lock it away for a few years, you can get 2%.

https://www.moneysavingexpert.com/savings/savings-accounts-best-interest/

Thanks @prettybird

At least the windows are clean with all of the f-wits around.

Just a note to say thanks for everyone for opinions. In my first post I mentioned I wasn't looking for a heated BREXIT/Indyref slang match, just how it felt 'on the ground' and I'm happy it didn't go too far in one direction. Really great to hear the views and opinions, plus now I also know where to pop money into a saving account