Student Finance In Scotland

arsenalbarnie

Hi am confused. Son will be going to Uni in three years time. He is interested in Edinburgh. Does anyone know whether to benefit from free tuition fees in Scotland you have to be Scottish born or a Scottish resident. We are together as a family all trying to think of ways round this unfair system (as we see it) of the good old student finance being charged to English residents. So we are considering moving to Scotland as kids are willing (still have 3 to go to uni), two already at uni in Cardiff. Last week Alex Salmond pledged that Scottish parliament are committed to free tuition fees for Scottish people, just wondering if that includes people moving there from England. Just a thought obviously things may have changed by then, but we are trying to think around ways of not having to borrow money from the government, as the way they have changed the public sector pension rules lately we are nervous that in years to come when the govt realise what a c*ck up they have made with student loans, they will then start upping the interest rate on the loans.

AnnBar

Remember that there are Scottish elections in May and nobody knows what will happen after that about student fees. Alex Salmond was only talking about his party, the SNP. They may not be into power after the May elections.

scottishblondie

You have to be resident in Scotland for 3 years before starting uni to qualify for funding from SAAS.

agrinnall

As Scottishblondie says. Plus entry to Edinburgh is incredibly competitive so you could end up moving to Scotland and your son not getting in.

GothicStirling

As said before there are elsections due, and those of us who are English and live in Scotland are getting !!!!ing sick of being used as a cash cow, so Scottish kids get a free education.

I'm so peed off I will be doing my MA at an English University.

Even if tuition fees aren't re-introduced, the endowment is looking highly likely. Also Edinburgh actively have a preference for students in the local area: Lothians, Central Scotland, Borders, Fife and Northumberland.

Oldernotwiser

I also wonder whether you realise that the Scottish education system has significant differences from the English one, which your children could find quite an upheaval.

The_One_Who

As already said, you need to have been ordinarily resident in Scotland for three years prior to the start date of the course. At the moment, English, Welsh and NI students are paying less in fees than they would be down south, but these will have to go up after 2012. I'm not entirely sure if these students still get their final year for free, I know they used to.

GothicStirling

The_One_Who wrote: »

As already said, you need to have been ordinarily resident in Scotland for three years prior to the start date of the course. At the moment, English, Welsh and NI students are paying less in fees than they would be down south, but these will have to go up after 2012. I'm not entirely sure if these students still get their final year for free, I know they used to.

No, I had to pay for my final year [2010/11] and they reduce the amount you get in loans.

Even if the tuiton fees rise, it will still be lower than in England. There has already been increased numbers of English student in Scotland over the last few years. So expect increased competition.

arsenalbarnie

Thanks for the replies eveyone. He was thinking Edinburgh anyway as no. 22 in the world. He is an A* student but that doesn't guarantee anything, I think you need to have had tea with Mother Theresa to get into certain unis!:) I think the current system is unfair to English students and wish we were Welsh or Scottish! Would love to live in Edinburgh I could afford a fantastic house there.:D I don't trust Student Finance England. They calculated all m y two sons grants wrong (both studying in Cardiff at moment), gave them the money, plus bursary from uni then asked for half of it back last month. Tried to blame it on me saying given them wrong info. I hadn't which they then admitted it was their fault.:mad::mad::mad: I politely told them in future they might think about including all the loan/means testing calculations in the letter they send out, so we can inform them when they have got it wrong! Also I don't trust the government, look how they have changed the public sector pension rules. At present students pay back 9% of their salary etc, but when the unis all start to charge £9000 a year in fees which no doubt a load of them will, then the govt arent going to be able to fund these loans and I reckon they might up the repayments. At the end of the day they can do as they please. Be warned. We will await the Scottish election results with more interest than usual! Maybe a move to Dublin might be nice.

GothicStirling

arsenalbarnie wrote: »

Thanks for the replies eveyone. He was thinking Edinburgh anyway as no. 22 in the world.

Edinburgh is actually world no.40.

http://www.timeshighereducation.co.uk/world-university-rankings/2010-2011/top-200.html

As for house prices, the system is different in Scotland. There are fixed house prices. Then there is a silent bidding process where the potential buyer places a bid at a certain percentage above the asking price, the best bid wins.

Edinburgh isn't a cheap place to live and you have to be willing to live with heavy tourism. That's why I love Stirling, we only have tourist over the summer, Edinburgh is a 24/7 situation. There is a reason why all the high fliers live out in Stirlingshire and commute to their jobs in Glasgow and Edinburgh. My neighbours have very good jobs with RBS in Edinburgh, but wouldn't dream of living there.

GothicStirling

Forgot to mention that the jobs market is absolutely crap up here at the moment too.