Plans posed by the Conservative government to cap the number of English students attending universities in Scotland has been met with widespread criticism.
The UK Government wants to limit the number of undergraduates English universities will be able to teach from 2020-21.
They are expected to announce on Monday that a cap will also be introduced on the number of students from England heading to Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland for their higher education.
The plans have been met with criticism from the devolved nations.
“We do not support these proposals and they should not apply to Scotland," Scotland’s minister for higher education Richard Lochhead told The Guardian.
READ MORE: Young people risk having their careers ‘scarred’ by Covid-19
“That view is widely shared within the Scottish higher education sector, given this proposal came like a bolt out of the blue this week with no consultation generating considerable anger.
“Putting up barriers that stop students going to Scottish universities is in principle wrong and at this late stage is disruptive and unreasonable.”
A Welsh source told The Guardian that the Department of Education’s move was “trampling on devolution”.
The nation’s education minister for Wales Kirsty Williams wrote to the Department of Education’s universities minister, Michelle Donelan. Williams said: “I am deeply concerned that you have chosen to place a control on Welsh institutions rather than work with the Welsh government to achieve a solution that is compatible with devolution.
“I do not believe this approach [is] in the best interests of the UK as a whole, and demonstrates a surprising unwillingness to respect complementary policies in each nation.”
READ MORE: Agenda: The future success of our society depends on youth work
She added: “My chief concern is to protect the interests of Welsh students and Welsh higher education institutions. I will consider the consequences for Wales arising from the UK Government’s policy and take further action to ensure that those interests are protected.”
The Department of Education said it was looking to bring stability during 'an incredibly difficult time'.
A spokesperson for the department said: “We will shortly be setting out further details on how the student number controls will be implemented, including how they will work in the devolved administrations.”
Why are you making commenting on The Herald only available to subscribers?
It should have been a safe space for informed debate, somewhere for readers to discuss issues around the biggest stories of the day, but all too often the below the line comments on most websites have become bogged down by off-topic discussions and abuse.
heraldscotland.com is tackling this problem by allowing only subscribers to comment.
We are doing this to improve the experience for our loyal readers and we believe it will reduce the ability of trolls and troublemakers, who occasionally find their way onto our site, to abuse our journalists and readers. We also hope it will help the comments section fulfil its promise as a part of Scotland's conversation with itself.
We are lucky at The Herald. We are read by an informed, educated readership who can add their knowledge and insights to our stories.
That is invaluable.
We are making the subscriber-only change to support our valued readers, who tell us they don't want the site cluttered up with irrelevant comments, untruths and abuse.
In the past, the journalist’s job was to collect and distribute information to the audience. Technology means that readers can shape a discussion. We look forward to hearing from you on heraldscotland.com
Comments & Moderation
Readers’ comments: You are personally liable for the content of any comments you upload to this website, so please act responsibly. We do not pre-moderate or monitor readers’ comments appearing on our websites, but we do post-moderate in response to complaints we receive or otherwise when a potential problem comes to our attention. You can make a complaint by using the ‘report this post’ link . We may then apply our discretion under the user terms to amend or delete comments.
Post moderation is undertaken full-time 9am-6pm on weekdays, and on a part-time basis outwith those hours.
Read the rules hereLast Updated:
Report this comment Cancel