Scotland’s universities must scrap free tuition

Scotland’s universities are in a crisis of Holyrood’s own making. The Scottish Funding Council is currently discussing bailout terms for the University of Dundee, while other universities, including my own alma mater the University of Edinburgh, have announced large redundancy packages to try and balance the books. This financial pressure, while exacerbated by other factors, largely results from the Scottish National party’s (SNP) zero tuition fee policy, in which domestic students pay nothing for their education. Some good may, however, yet come from this crisis, as it has increased political will to reconsider this cornerstone SNP policy.

Currently, Scotland’s most prominent universities rely on international student fees to compensate for the substantial losses they incur from educating domestic students. This was never sustainable: a university’s reputation is a finite resource, relying on the academic merit of its students, and will be quickly eroded if funding pressures result in unqualified students being admitted.