Free tuition comes at a cost

Sir, – The principal of Aberdeen University, Sir Ian Diamond, has told a Holyrood inquiry that his admissions department is forced to reject applications from wellqualified Scots because of the SNP’s quota on places.

It transpires from figures disclosed to a national newspaper under the Freedom of Information Act that 2,816 Scots have been accepted to medical schools at Edinburgh, Glasgow, Aberdeen, St Andrews and Dundee universities in the past five years.

Meanwhile, 13,896 suitably qualified Scots applicants had their

applications rejected. This is another example of the myth of free tuition for Scots.

It is not only in medicine that Scots are missing out as a look at graduation lists of the aforementioned universities shows. In all the major subjects – such as medicine, science and engineering – the vast majority of graduates are from outwith Scotland and the EU.

These mainly Asian and African students pay the large fees required to fund “free” tuition for Scots and EU students.

The numbers of Scots going to universities, which the SNP claims is increasing, are mainly going to the “B-string” of universities offering subjects from nail technology to hairdressing and media studies.

By perpetuating this false premise of free tuition the SNP are educating the rest of the world’s students at the expense of Scottish students and the future of the country.

In the face of a chronic shortage of GPs, scientists and engineers in Scotland the SNP’s ideological obsession with free tuition is unaffordable, a betrayal of Scottish students and totally irresponsible.

Donald Lewis, Pine Cottage. Gifford.

The numbers of Scots going to universities, which the SNP claims is increasing, are mainly going to the ‘B-string’ of universities offering subjects from nail technology to hairdressing and media studies