Graduate endowment to be scrapped
The SNP has fulfilled its manifesto commitment to scrap the ‘graduate endowment’. The backdoor tuition fee was introduced by the Lib-Lab Executive during the first Parliament, as a compromise between the Labour policy of tuition fees and the Lib Dem policy of free education (in fact, the graduate endowment is literally half the then tuition fee for a four-year degree).
The Education Minister Fiona Hyslop today announced that the hated experiment is to end - for both current and future students. Draft legislation will be introduced in the autumn, and if passed by Parliament (as it probably will be, with Green and Lib Dem support) will come into force next April. As of then, Scotland will once again be a country that believes in free education. Other parties (even Neo Labour) have made promises to students, and failed to honour them:
We will not introduce ‘top-up’ tuition fees, and have legislated to prevent them
Still others (such as ‘Scottish’ Neo Labour in this year’s election) have argued that it is somehow in the interests of students to have to pay £2000+ for accessing a basic right such as education. The SNP have made a genuine commitment to students, and more importantly have stuck to their word (unlike certain other parties). Long may it continue!
Tags: Education, Graduate Endowment, Neo Labour, News, Politics, Scotland, SNP, Top Up Fees, Tuition Fees, University
June 13th, 2007 at 6:19 pm
Earlier reports suggested that the endowment had already been scrapped. It hasn’t ,but it will be.
June 13th, 2007 at 7:46 pm
“it is somehow in the interests of students to have to pay £2000+ for accessing a basic right such as education. The SNP have made a genuine commitment to students, and more importantly have stuck to their word”
I take issue with this last comment. “students” do not have to pay. It is former students who have to pay. And have the SNP definitely kept their word? They promised an end to student loans did they not? That would have saved me I think around £2,800, but they seem to have given up on that already!
PS can I link to your blog from mine, please?
June 13th, 2007 at 7:59 pm
Students do have to pay. They are presented with a demand for payment following their graduation. Taking out an additional student loan (payable based on earnings) is one option to obtain the funds for this, but the actual payment of the endowment is made following graduation.
The SNP are still going to abolish student loans (they said as much today), but that takes longer to organise as they have to work out a legal way for the Scottish Executive to pay off existing student debt - owed under a contract between the individual student, and the Student Loans Company. I believe the current plan is for the Executive to repay the debt on the student’s behalf - i.e. they wouldn’t have to formally abolish the debt, which they don’t necessarily have the power to do - they would just eliminate its financial effect on the student.
As for linking to my blog, link away
June 14th, 2007 at 4:15 pm
I doubt the SNP will abolish loans as the rest of parliament seems to be against it.
As for what’s happening to the money, and how it is being paid:
“She also revealed that only £12.7m had been paid by students so far, with £26.3m having been transferred onto their existing loans, meaning it would not be paid back for years.
“Of this £26.3m, in three years the princely sum of only £47,000 has been returned to the taxpayer,” said Ms Hyslop.”
http://www.theherald.co.uk/news/news/display.var.1470004.0.0.php
June 14th, 2007 at 6:39 pm
Yeah like I said - students may take out a student loan in order to pay the graduate endowment, but the demand for payment is presented following graduation.
Obviously the chances of the SNP being able to scrap student loans are small (unless they can find an administrative fudge to do it using Ministerial powers rather than legislation) due to the opposition of the other parties, but they will still attempt to do so. This probably also means that those who have paid their graduate endowment by taking out a student loan (or by paying cash upfront) will probably not get a ‘refund’ - only those students yet to graduate will benefit as far as the endowment is concerned.
September 22nd, 2007 at 10:00 am
Hi i was wondering if you could possibly answer a question for me. I have ask teh university where i will be graduating from in November but they have said they do not know. My query is i started studying in 2002 and obviously am now looking to graduate in 2007. Do i have to pay the graduate endowment?
September 22nd, 2007 at 3:49 pm
It really depends. Graduates have to pay the Graduate Endowment in the April after their graduation - in your case, April 2008. If the SNP get their way a bill abolishing the endowment will be passed before next April, so you probably wouldn’t have to pay the endowment fee (it would be abolished before you are asked to pay.
However it is still possible that the Tories, Neo-Labour, and Lib Dems (despite the latter’s opposition to tuition fees) could club together to stop the endowment from being abolished, so really ‘wait and see’ is the most definite answer I can give you I’m afraid.
November 29th, 2007 at 1:37 pm
well I just got a bill for 2000 quid today in the post…. its been a bad day….
February 28th, 2008 at 6:27 pm
Just watched the news and hear of the abolition ot tuition fees. That is fantastic for those who have not paid but what about those who have? Why should we have to pay for education while others don’t?
February 28th, 2008 at 9:18 pm
Tuition fees haven’t been abolished, the endowment has. So if you’re a Scottish or EU student who is having the fees paid by the SAAS, you now won’t have to pay the £2200-ish graduate tax at the end of your degree. If you don’t qualify for SAAS support (or you already graduated and paid the endowment), my sympathies. You can blame all the sheeple who voted Labour in 1999 and 2003.
March 3rd, 2008 at 1:32 pm
It’s great news for all current/future students; however those of us who have already had to pay this sickening and unjust tax will receive no benefit. The 2005/06 graduates seems to have been royally screwed with loans and endowments, which turn into loans. I for one will probably never pay off my university debt!!!