On a more serious note than the last post, I feel very glad about the SNP government. I even feel quite magnanimous towards the Lib Dems, repentant sinners though they may be (with no eye on that ever so important student vote that remains one of their few strong electoral demographics, oh no).
The first Act of the SNP Government was to abolish tolls in and out of Fife. The second Act has been to remove university fees. As a St Andrews graduate I feel like I am in a privileged subset of the population. Alex Salmond be warned, it is surely only a matter of time before Terry Kelly accuses you of a conflict of interest (in that barely literate way of his).
I could gloat. I could cluck. I could rationally argue even (fancy that).
Instead, I think I'll just bask.
Thursday, 28 February 2008
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8 comments:
You basker you!
And as a St Andrews graduate who no longer lives here, you're in an even more privilleged subset of the population!
A point completely overlooked is the fact that the Tories opposed the introduction of the graduate endownment. It seems that the Fib Dems have come across quite well from all of this despite introducing the grad endownment
They may have opposed it in the first place, but then they changed their mind and voted to keep it - at least the Fiberals changed their mind in the right direction!
It's good, I'm in the huff because I missed out by a couple of years both ways - the endowment was brought in only a year or so prior to me starting uni and is finishing only a few years after I left.
I just worry about how our universities are going to remain competitive in the future.
You are quite right to be concerned, unfortunately in Scotland moronic socialism of the 'everything’s free' variety still rules.
By the time these cretins wake up and smell the coffee it will be too late and our universities will have lost their reputations.
In the meantime do enjoy your basking.
Why do people confuse the two issues of Student funding and University funding?
The two, although obviously linked in that they're both pertaining to education, have no direct corelation to one another, other than the fact that the former will affect the number of students attending (or at least applying if you want to be properly pedantic).
The £2,289 did NOT go to the Universities, I think a third or so of that cash was wasted instantly through administration costs, and then once you took off the government's bill for paying the interest on the loans people took out to pay it (since the SLC only charge students "inflation"), the scheme brought in LESS THAN FIFTY THOUSAND POUNDS. That's less than one MSP's wage!
The money was supposed to go into paying for the Young Student's Bursary, it didn't go to the Universities - as I said the two matters are not related. University funding is the highest this year than it ever has been, and I'm not just talking in terms of numbers here - i'm talking relatively. As a proportion of the budget as a whole, it's increased, and obviously this is the biggest budget we've ever had.
But why let the facts get in the way of a sound bite?!
grogipher,
The point is, as you say, they are both linked. I don't happen to think that the Graduate Endownment was a good way for students to contribute towards their higher education, and I'm not seeking to defend it. Indeed I'm glad it has gone. As a general caveat, I don't even have the answers to the questions I'm about to pose.
But it cannot be divorced from the fact, that as far as students from Scotland are concerned (who make up the vast majority of students at universities in Scotland) tertiary education funding will come from central government - and that ties our universities to the fortunes of government and government finances. We saw what that meant when universities were starved of funding during the 1980's when Thatcher was in power.
There is no point in saying, that will never happen again, because it just well might. And when it does happen it may well be involuntary - that the government needs to divert funding from universities into sectors that are seen as being higher in the pecking order - health, police or secondary education.
The phrase "world-class" is used too much to describe things in Scotland, but I genuinely do think Scotland has a world-class university sector. I'd be heartbroken to see anything disadvantage that.
So again, I'm glad the endowment has gone, but I do worry about university funding in the future. Both elements are linked.
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