I’ve been out of Oxford, in Scotland for half term and several things strike me.

Scotland is full of English students. Having two children of my own studying in Edinburgh and St Andrew’s, the issue of student experience – and all that entails in terms of current value for money and future debt is top of mind.

Oxford’s students are many and various: university, international and language school.

What marks them out from their Scottish counterparts is that they all pay tuition fees, unless the lucky recipient of a bursary or scholarship which eases the financial burden of higher education.

Within three generations of my own family, we have paid nothing, £1,000, £3,000 and now £9,000 a year for tuition fees.

That’s a whole course at £3,000 a year in 2006 versus a single year in 2014.

Although parental income influenced the size of the maintenance grant, differences in cost have never been so great. How does that square with equality of opportunity based on scholastic ability?

Student numbers have grown from about 11 per cent of eligible 18 to 21 year olds in my day, to 42 per cent today.

But how is that increasing burden shared? We already support a National Health Service, and free primary and secondary education for all.

Something has to give.

In Scotland, it’s different.

Tuition fees for the same course can be anything from £9,000 a year to zilch, depending entirely on the random fact of where you live. Never mind ability – think postcode. Scottish undergraduate courses are also traditionally a year longer than their English counterpart – four years, not three. That’s an additional year at £9,000 to fund.

Scottish universities charge a sliding scale of fees. The difference is huge. Not only is a Scottish student’s tuition fee only £1,820 (compared to an English student’s £9,000 bill) – but a student resident in Scotland can avoid paying altogether. The Student Awards Agency for Scotland (SAAS) will pay instead. If you’re a non-UK EU resident, from the EEA or Switzerland, or the child of Turkish parents working in the UK, you too can apply to the SAAS – and pay nothing.

If you’re Welsh, you can access an annual loan of £3,685 – but a new Fee Grant of up to £5,315.00 will slash your £9,000 bill in half.

How is it that only the English – many Oxford residents included – are charged the highest fees?

The EU has pronounced that its jurisdiction to enforce free tuition fees only extends to countries within the EU.

They have no power to influence regional funding decisions within EU member states.

Hence the Scots’ exploitation of English domiciled students.

Do you have to study in Scotland? Well, it has first-rate universities. In a competitive future job market, quality of education matters.

Should we challenge Scottish policy more within the English courts? If the Scottish referendum found in favour of inclusiveness within the UK, surely tuition fees – including those charged to the English – could, and should, be treated similarly.

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