What price a higher education? If Edinburgh University gets its way, £36,000 could be the answer – at least if you come from England, Wales or Northern Ireland.
That could make Edinburgh University the most expensive place to study in the UK – if, unlike Aberdeen and Heriot-Watt universities, it decides to charge the full £9,000 a year for the whole of a standard four-year degree, rather than for three years.
The three universities have all indicated that they plan to set their fees for rest of UK (RUK) residents at the highest level. Aberdeen and Heriot-Watt have already said that they will cap their fees at £27,000 for a course – even if it is of four years, the standard length in Scotland – putting them on a par with universities south of the border.
The announcements follow a decision by the Scottish government to let the universities set their own fees for RUK students. Consultation on the proposal ended last week. The fee levels being proposed are thus far “indicative” and will depend on the result of the consultation and any future legislation. But the universities say they plan to start charging those fees from next summer if given the green light.
In its election manifesto, the SNP promised not to introduce fees or a graduate tax for students living in Scotland. But the UK government decided to allow universities elsewhere in the UK to charge fees of up to £9,000. This prompted the education secretary, Mike Russell, to bring forward proposals which would let allow Scottish universities to set their own fees for students from England, Wales or Northern Ireland.
At the time, Mr Russell thought that fees in Scotland would fall in a range between the current £1,800 and £9,000, but said he expected levels to be lower than those south of the border.
In response to the announcements from the three universities, a Scottish government spokesman said that it was “up to individual universities to manage and set their fee levels for students from the rest of the UK, bearing in mind the need to be competitive and attractive to a broad range of students. It is in their interests, as well as Scotland's, that we maintain the cosmopolitan character of our student population at the same time as making sure that opportunities for students who live in Scotland are protected.”
Although Edinburgh’s fees may be the highest in the UK, the university said that not all students would end up paying this high level because it would offer “the most generous bursary package within the UK for those on the lowest household incomes”. Students, it added, would be encouraged to go straight to the second year of a course. Professor Ian Diamond, principal of the University of Aberdeen, said last month that maintaining fees at the current level - about £1,800 a year for most degrees - was no longer possible.
Professor Mary Bownes, vice principal for external engagement at Edinburgh University, said that the increase in the fee was “necessary as we will no longer receive government funding for RUK domiciled students. These students will be studying at one of the world's top teaching and research institutions, regularly ranked amongst the leading universities in the world.”
She added that a "generous" bursary package would be introduced for RUK students on the lowest household incomes. More than 50 per cent of additional tuition fee income will go towards bursaries with the remainder going towards enhancing the student experience.”
However, Matthew McPherson of the Edinburgh University Students' Association, warned that there was “a damaging race to the top taking place in Scotland as universities believe they are holding up face and prestige by setting higher fee levels, but they are wrong. The prestige of Scotland's higher education sector is based on the quality of its provision, not on the size of its charge.”
That view was shared by Graeme Kirkpatrick, depute president of NUS Scotland, who said that “the average cost to study at Oxford and Cambridge is around £25,000 in fees, which while still eye-wateringly large, pales in comparison with [Edinburgh’s proposed fees]. And that's before you add additional debt for the extra year of living costs for the four-year degree in Scotland.”
He warned that this was “giving the signal that Edinburgh University is more interested in the money you can bring, as opposed to your academic ability. The reputational damage this could do, not only to Edinburgh but to the whole of Scottish higher education, should not be underestimated.”
It is not yet clear whether the change will ultimately go through, because human rights lawyers are preparing a case against the Scottish government, arguing that its decision could be discriminatory and in breach of human rights law.
A Birmingham-based firm, Public Interest Lawyers (PIL), was said last month to be seeking a judicial review of the policy. Solicitors preparing the case believe that Scottish ministers have misinterpreted the law. Under European Union law, universities throughout the EU cannot discriminate against members of other states. They have to charge foreign students the same fees as home students. PIL wants to challenge the Scottish government’s argument that England is not a “state” and so this law does not apply.
PIL points out that equality laws here in the UK, human rights legislation and EU law prohibit discrimination on the grounds of nationality. They will argue that RUK students should be treated the same as Scottish and EU students in Scotland. It is not certain if a case will come to court, but some 22,000 RUK students will be watching developments with interest.
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