4-12-03

Government can learn a lot from Scotland’s experience on Universities – Barrett

John Barrett, Liberal Democrat MP for Edinburgh West, today challenged the Education Secretary Charles Clarke, to learn from the Scottish example on widening access to Universities.

Speaking during Education Questions in the House of Commons, Mr Barrett said that the policy of scrapping tuition fees whilst ruling out top-up fees had kept Scottish University participation rates higher than south of the border. 

In a statement, John Barrett said:

"The Government has set a target of getting 50% of school leavers into further or higher education.  This is why top-up fees are being proposed, to pay for the increased costs.  However, Scotland has already met this target, not just without top-up fees but without any Scottish student paying anything towards the cost of their tuition.

"The Labour Government at Westminster must realise that you don't widen access by charging more.  The experience in Scotland goes to show this."
Mr Barrett also warned that top-up fees in England and Wales would have a big impact in Scotland."

He added:

"Latest figures from the Government show that there are over 27,000 Scottish domiciled students studying at English or Welsh Universities.  If top-up fees were to be introduced, it would have a damaging impact, not just on those students but on the thousands more Scots who are wanting to study in England and Wales in the future.  For this reason, I will be opposing top-up fees in the House of Commons at every opportunity.

ENDS