Tuition fees / potential for unqualified teachers in Scotland

[Scotslassie1]

Worrying. 😰 See below-

'Gavin Williamson refuses to say Westminster won't impose tuition fees on Scots.

THE UK Education Secretary has refused to rule out the possibility Westminster will use its post-Brexit powers to impose tuition fees on Scots students.

Gavin Williamson was speaking in Parliament earlier today when he pointedly avoided saying the Internal Market Bill would not be used to “undermine” the free tuition policy and set university fees in Scotland from London.

The Secretary of State for Education was asked to confirm that the Internal Market Bill will not undermine the ability of the Scottish Government to set university fees in Scotland or to continue providing free university tuition.

Williamson gave an evasive answer which suggested that “proper use” of the higher education market across the whole of the UK would be decided in London.

He said: “The honourable lady seems to always miss the point that we live in a United Kingdom of four nations together where there is one single market, and we have to ensure there is efficient and proper use of that market so that all four nations properly benefit.”

Last month, the General Teaching Council for Scotland (GTCS) warned that the Internal Market Bill could be used to force registration of unqualified teachers from outside Scotland, by centralising the teacher registration process at a UK level.

GTCS chief executive Ken Muir said: "The bill makes it quite clear that the General Teaching Council would be expected to register and give full registration to any teacher from any of the jurisdictions in the UK.

"And if they are in the teaching profession in England, irrespective of whether they are highly qualified or unqualified, the expectation is that we would register them."

In the few EU countries I know teaching is a degree course that takes several years. I would say that generally qualifications are more of a thing and it's harder for people to change jobs or enter professions than in UK. Not always a good thing.

I read something about the bill a while ago, i think it was being proposed Westminster would have the ability to decide which courses unis would be allowed to run, ie. They would decide if to shut down certain subjects if they felt they were not needed. I think they want to force Scottish students to be as mobile as rUk ones, if your subject isn't available at your local uni you will have to move away from home. This would be a big change for Scotland as we have a higher proportion of students living at home.
I wouldn't be surprised if getting rid of our four year degrees is on the wish list too. The bill is the thin end of a wedge IMO, and should be judged on that as much as its actual content atm.

Yeah this is just education- the bill covers a whole host of things including food. The Tories just overturned a bill saying imported food should meet UK standards. We can all look forward to chlorinated chicken and hormone pumped beef.

Will that affect animal welfare standards too?

I am actually more concerned with the current situation where misalignment of qualifications effectively locks Scottish children out of certain English Unis while having to compete on an uneven basis (capped vs uncapped) with English students for access to Scottish Unis.

Douglas Ross just moved Scottish Conservative policy to be in favour of free tuition. Post pandemic I expect a similar pivot in England as the current model is unsustainable and just as costly (very few even start to pay back fees but loans are more generous and places uncapped) - too much political resistance to increase fees even if they would be recovered.

I think English students have just been capped too, or were supposed to be until the grading fiasco, to stop too much English funding flowing north. I am not happy with the cap on Scottish students, it just feels fundamentally unfair.

Agreed Wbreezer. No idea what will happen with caps going forward but expect both Scotland and England to pivot around the need for technical qualifications. Scotland has more leeway because of demographics and EU students falling out of the existing cap.

Even though education is devolved what happens in England inevitably impacts Scotland and vice versa. eg I have no doubt there would be far fewer EU Nationals in Scottish Unis competing for Scottish capped places if England were not charging fees.

In that sense it is somewhat reassuring to have the UK education minister acknowledge this.

While I’d be happy for the cap of Scottish students to be looked at I think devolved matters shd be left alone. Westminster at the moment is all about money and wealth that benefits v few. The agriculture bill that has just been passed is a sign of things to come - a lowering of standards for everyone, whereas the wealthy will be able to buy themselves out of poor food quality most will not and you can pretty much guarantee that it will be very hard to identify your food source post Brexit.

Yes @Mistressiggi the Tories voted against minimum animal welfare standards too. Disgusting but not surprising.

UK Gov screwing over consumers, animals and farmers.

Sounds like a thread with pure conjecture - and the fact that Scottish students are facing higher loan repayments earlier as fact is much more interesting.

Well yes, the SNP have a poor reputation in relation to farmers but we'll just ignore that...