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EU backs Scotland over fees for English students

06 September 2011, 17:33 CET
EU backs Scotland over fees for English students

Photo © lightpoet - Fotolia

(BRUSSELS) - The EU backed Scotland Tuesday in a bitter row over its free university education system, which also extends to other European students -- whereas those from England must pay thousands every year.

"There is no violation of EU law," Dennis Abbott, spokesman for European Union education commissioner Androulla Vassiliou, told AFP, after England-based students announced plans to mount a legal challenge.

"The Scottish practice in relation to students from other parts of the UK is a matter of policy internal to the UK and outside the scope of EU law," Abbott underlined.

A cross-border dispute intensified on Monday when the University of Edinburgh, in Scotland's capital, announced it will from September 2012 charge students from "rUK" fees totalling 36,000 pounds (41,000 euros, $58,000).

That is now a commonly-used acronym for the rest of the UK: England, Wales and Northern Ireland.

The Edinburgh fees would beat even those at Cambridge or Oxford -- although in Scotland most degrees take four years, as against three south of the border.

The divergence has come about because Scotland and England, while partners in the British state, have always retained separate legal and educational systems throughout their strained, three-centuries-old union.

It was made possible by votes in the respective Scottish and British parliaments -- the former since May this year under majority control by left-leaning nationalists bolstered this week by a respected poll that put a majority of Scots in favour of independence.

The first vote, in Edinburgh in February 2008, restored traditional free education for Scottish-domiciled students; the second, in December 2010 in London, increased university tuition fees to a maximum of 9,000 pounds per annum from next year.

However, the British government has no powers over Scotland in the sphere of education, as with justice and most other domestic policy areas.

English universities feared losing out in the lucrative race for overseas students if they did not raise funding.

That led Scotland's government to allow its universities to charge the same ceiling to rUK students in a bid to avoid "fees refugees" flooding across the border, and protect places for domestic learners.

Edinburgh, like Saint Andrews where Prince William met his wife Kate Middleton as students, has long been a favourite for English emigres.

The university has said it will offset its new fees with 6.7-million-pound annual bursaries for non-Scottish students.

But England-based lawyer Phil Shiner has said he intended mounting a court challenge, claiming a breach of the European Convention on Human Rights.

Higher education is government-subsidised in Scotland for residents in Scotland, and, under EU law that "prohibits discrimination between local students and students from other EU countries," must be likewise for undergraduates from other EU states.

However, "according to Scottish law, students from the rest of the UK can instead be charged fees," Abbott said.

And because Scotland is still a part of the UK, he said, the EU considers the case "an internal matter, for national authorities to consider."

About 22,500 "rUK" students go to Scottish universities each year.


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