The SNP has branded the Labour government’s leaked plans to increase tuition fees in England as a “betrayal to the next generation”, while committing to continue free tuition in Scotland.
As reported in the i, Whitehall officials have drawn up proposals to increase fees from the current cap of £9,250.
The move comes after Michael Marra, Scottish Labour’s finance spokesperson, hinted earlier in the year that the party will examine models to reintroduce some form of charges in Scotland.
In Scotland, where the SNP abolished tuition fees in 2007, Student Loans Company (SLC) data shows students leave university with the lowest levels of debt in the UK and an average of £31,790 less debt than students in England.
Figures released earlier in the summer show that a staggering 1.8million people in England and Wales are in at least £50,000 of student debt.
Record numbers of students from our most deprived areas in Scotland are going to university due to the SNP’s continued support for free higher education for all.
SNP MSP Evelyn Tweed, Deputy Convener of Holyrood’s Education Committee, said:
“Labour’s plans to hike tution fees in England are a continuation of Tory policy and a betrayal of the next generation.
“The record number of students being accepted for university and particularly the rise in students from our most disadvantaged communities shows the excellent progress we are making in widening access to higher education under the SNP Scottish Government.
“This progress has only been made possible due to our continued commitment to free tuition fees which would be put at risk by both Labour and the Tories who have repeatedly failed to pledge continued support.
“A re-introduction of fees would put this progress at risk and saddle young people with obscene levels of debt.
“The SNP is wholeheartedly committed to ensuring that access to university will always be based on the ability to learn and not the ability to pay and that the opportunity of a university education is available to everyone.
“It’s time Labour found some principles of their own and disown this ridiculous proposal.”
