Help for EU students... but not the UK families of veterans
I AM a final year student at Dundee University. I have approximately £27,000 of debt with Student Finance england to fund my studies after being rejected by the Student Awards Agency for Scotland (SAAS) based on residency criteria. Tuition in Scotland for ‘Scottish’ students, (by Scottish, this could be anyone who currently lives in Scotland) is free and education Secretary John Swinney proposes that EU residents will also be eligible for this luxury as of 2019, the year Britain plans to leave the EU. My father served in two Scottish Army regiments. he joined up in his home town of Dundee and my paternal grandfather was one of the first Scottish soldiers to be killed in action in northern Ireland. Part-funded by the Ministry of Defence, I attended a Scottish boarding school until 2009, when I attended a school in north Yorkshire, where my father was serving at the time. My father retired in 2011 after 26 years in the Army. During this time, I was sitting GCSES, A levels then a one-year foundation course. In December 2013, I applied to Dundee University and I enrolled there in September 2014. SAAS seemed to expect that my family should have moved back to Scotland in order to be eligible for free tuition. This was impossible for most families, facing them with the financial strain of packing up and moving away. As the family of a Forces veteran, we are already aware of the financial hardships for ex-military people. not only are the SAAS residency criteria discriminatory towards Scottish Forces veterans and their families, but they are also discriminating against the ‘rest of the UK’ students who should take priority over EU nationals for free tuition in
Scottish institutions. I have contacted many organisations, including my local MSP, the Scottish Public Services Ombudsman, my university and the Ministry of Defence without success. I fear that many veterans and their families will be discriminated against in the future. Why should EU students come before Scottish military families when it comes to free tuition in Scotland and again, why should they also come before students from England, Wales and Northern Ireland? Is this the SNP’s way of clinging on to the EU post-Brexit? KIERA MARSHALL, via email.