Last month, after winning £23m in college bursary funding and extra places through our Budget for Bursaries campaign, NUS Scotland launched Reclaim Your Voice.
This campaign, which includes a national march and demonstration at the Scottish Parliament on 22 March, asks MSP candidates in this May's Parliamentary elections to make three commitments:
- No tuition fees
- Protect college places and graduate numbers
- Increase student support
One month and thousands of activists later, the Reclaim Your Voice campaign is already having a major impact, as the SNP have joined Scottish Labour in coming out against fees in Scotland.
Responding to the SNP’s announcement to defend and protect students’ right to free education, Liam Burns, President of NUS Scotland, said:
“The SNP have been opposed to fees throughout this parliament, and this announcement shows that the SNP remains strongly committed to Scotland’s students. This will be a great relief to students across Scotland with a consensus now building against fees for education, and we thank the SNP for their work on this.
“We know that fees in Scotland would put off the poorest students in Scotland from ever going to university which would be a disaster not only for our economy but for our society too. Scottish education must remain based on the ability to learn not the ability to pay.
“We now know the likely funding gap for universities in Scotland and, despite what university leaders say, we know it’s certainly manageable without fees if we prioritise public spending. That’s why the SNP can now move to rule out the threat of fees over the heads of students in Scotland, without risk to our world class higher education system. However the full story must look at all public funding – research, teaching and student support.
“The election in May is an opportunity to show that the Scottish Parliament is different to Westminster. We can show that we value education in Scotland, while the rest of the UK closes the door to thousands of talented people. We will now work with all parties to ask them to commit to ruling out fees, protecting graduate numbers and improving student support, making sure education is protected not just now, but for a whole generation."