Posted: Apr 28, 2015 7:21 pm
mrjonno wrote:The big problem with tuition fees is whether they exist or not (that's an issue but not a constitutional one) but the fact that one part of country can change people from a different part completely different amounts.
If Scotland was independent within the EU it would have to charge Belgium,the Dutch the English anyone in the EU exactly the same as Scottish students which is currently nothing. I've looked at Dutch post grad fee's and they have to treat me exactly as a Dutch citizen if I went to study there. They can discriminate on my intelligence but not my nationality
True, although some other EU countries simply find ways to support their own students outwith their tuition fees regimes, which is what the Scottish govt proposed in the event of independence so that Scottish universities didn't end up attracting too many students from other parts of UK.
The reason it happens is because there is nothing in EU law about how fees are charged within a state, but students from other states have to be treated the same. But again - fix tuition fees in England and there wont be a problem. It's a terrible policy.