By Alex Haylock
Lord Sutherland. Photo courtesy of Guardian.co.uk
Statements made by two senior academics in recent months have prompted a wave of speculation over the possible re-introduction of tuition fees in Scotland.
The comments, made by Lord Sutherland, former principal of Edinburgh University and former head of Universities Scotland (An advisory body to the senior management teams of Scotland’s top 20 universities), echo those made yesterday by James Mitchell, senior politics lecturer at Strathclyde university in Glasgow.
Tuition fees at a flat rate of £1000 ‘up front’ were introduced by the Blair government across the nation in 1998, but abolished by a Labour-Lib-Dem coalition north of the border in 2000, and tuition fees were abolished altogether in 2006 by the SNP, the same year that universities in England and Wales introduced ‘top-up’ fees of £3000.
The reasoning behind the abolition of tuition fees in Scotland was to ostensibly provide a means of accessing university education to the poorest parts of Scottish society, even though just 26% of Scottish university students come from poorer backgrounds, compared with over 40% from Northern Ireland and 30% across the UK as a whole. The Scottish government, however, has defended its actions on abolishing tuition fees, contending that university access should be based on a student’s ability top learn, and not their ability to pay fees.
