How fees were voted in
A number of Scottish MPs voted for, or abstained on this issue. Silence here, might reasonably be construed to have given consent. 14 Welsh and Scottish MPs voted with the government. A number of the Scottish MPs have constituencies with SNP members in the Scottish Parliament. We have individuals in the UK who have been able to send one MP to the UK parliament to vote for a 'tax' for English students, and their MSP to the Scottish parliament to block this tax for their own students. (See section 'Article 4 of the Act of Union') Currently this may seem, as I have heard said, 'merely a constitutional issue' but in 6-7 years, for a number of graduates, it will be a financial one. Devolution did not give the Scottish parliament tax raising powers but seems to have managed to give it tax avoidance powers.
English students may pay up to £9,000 a year in Scottish universities where Scottish students will have no fees. In a reply I received on 6th July to a question I asked as to what fees a Scottish student would pay in England a member of Scotland's Higher Education and Learner Support Division wrote:
Discussions are underway and as yet no firm decisions have been reached regarding funding for academic year 2012-13. Prospective students are advised to monitor the Scottish Government and Student Awards Agency for Scotland websites for further information as it becomes available.'
This certainly leaves open the possibility that Scottish students will also pay less in English universities.
The Welsh Assembly has stated its intention to provide top up grants for fees for its students in both Wales and England.
Equal access in a free market
In a letter of May 22nd I asked Mr Duncan Hames MP the following question:
16
It has been suggested that if most universities set high fees it will lead to a government imposed cap on places. If this is the case can the government cap places for full fee paying overseas students, or from full fee paying UK based students, and for students funded by the Scottish or Welsh governments, or only cap the places for English students going through the normal admissions process here, and who require UK government support?
If any of the places for overseas, Welsh or Scottish students cannot be capped it seems to me to be leading to a situation where two UK students, both able, both good candidates, for the same course, may end up having a place based on who pays, or who can pay, the bill. Would this be fair?
I am awaiting a reply
Future comparative salaries
Graduates from Scotland enter the same job market without the debt, and Welsh graduates with a much smaller debt. They will be in a position to under-cut the higher salaries English graduates might reasonably demand to help pay off the debt they will hold.
This is unfair.
English graduates will pay 9p more in the £ in tax than people who may be living in the same country, who will have studied the same course, and if in Scotland or Wales at the same university, at the same time and do the same job on the same salary. The English graduate would require a gross salary of 12.6% more on everything they earn over the payback threshold to give the same net pay as the Scottish student.
Freedom of movement for employment
There is also a question regarding freedom of movement for employment whilst the differential rests in place. Someone with children considering university would be foolish to accept a promotion, which made them ordinarily resident in England at this time and make his children liable for the new high fees.
17
A choice of residence opt out
I suspect there are wealthy UK families who have a choice of UK country of residence, that is to say, Scottish or Welsh, and English homes. Another free pass for the wealthiest?
A double tax?
If Scotland at some time in the future introduces a general tax to support its universities then an English graduate working in Scotland might find himself or herself paying both the Scottish education tax and the English loan/tax, two taxes for the same thing in one United Kingdom.
Why not a Tax
Was a loan brought in, which for many reasons puts a greater burden on the individual than a tax might have done, purely for political and constitutional reasons: to keep the Scots 'onside' by giving them an opt out and thus prevent them opposing the UK parliament bill, and it falling, and also to avoid a direct conflict with the Act of Union which creating a tax levied on only the English might have done?
I am still baffled as to why this government is pursuing with such relish a policy which seems to burden English students with such debt and set them at such a major disadvantage to their Scottish and Welsh counterparts with whom they will be sharing jobs, housing and life in this country for their adult lives.
When for Gordon Brown's policy Scottish MPs were brought down to vote in 'the thin end of the wedge' which has now evolved into this policy I felt a generation was betrayed and made a pledge to myself never to vote labour again, which I have not, perhaps this is the moment when labour can win me back.
I believe that if this difference remains it will fester at the roots of a United Kingdom.
18
