The SNP has re-affirmed the party’s commitment to free education, as Tory plans to tax students £6,000 for a degree unravelled.
Analysis of the Tories plans to hit students with a graduate tax shows the plan would raise next to nothing in the next parliament, yet risks putting students off going to university and would end the principle of free education.
The analysis shows that instead of raise £100 million over the parliament as the Tories claimed, it could bring in as little as £215,000.
A re-elected SNP Government will continue to protect free higher education.
Commenting, Kenneth Gibson said:
“This scheme is less about funding universities and colleges and more about the Tories’ ideological obsession with introducing fees.
“It will raise almost nothing in the next five years. What it will do is deter young people from low income households from going to university.
“Since the SNP abolished Labour’s tuition fees, the number of graduates from low income households has risen by almost a third. That achievement would be at serious risk if the Tories had their way. And does anyone believe it will only be £6,000? When introduced, fees were £1,000 a year and are now £9,000 in England, with the Tories having lifted the maximum cap, so who knows what a graduate tax would actually be set at?
“The SNP will never introduce tuition fees, either upfront, as in England, or via the back door after graduation as the Tories propose. Going to university should be based on ability to learn not ability to pay.”
A breakdown of the Tory plans can be found at:
