THE Scottish Government is to end free university tuition for EU students, it has been announced.

Ministers say the decision is a result of Brexit and is being made with a “heavy heart”.

Students from EU countries – as remains the case for those from within Scotland – have been eligible for free tuition since fees were scrapped. But the Scottish Government will no longer be obliged to cover the cost for students from EU nations after the UK withdraws from the EU and will charge them after that point.

Tuition fees in Scotland for overseas students currently range from £9000 to more than £31,000 per year.

Students already in university, or starting this autumn, will continue to be exempt from fees for the duration of their course.

Speaking to MSPs today, Higher Education Minister Richard Lochhead said: “Our EU law obligations cease at the end of the transition period in a few months, and continuing with this arrangement for 2021/22 would significantly increase the risk of any legal challenge.

“It is therefore with a heavy heart that we have taken the difficult decision to end free education for new EU students from the academic year 2021/2022 onwards as a consequence of Brexit.”

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Lochhead said the Government will keep the money it saves – estimated to be up to £19 million a year – in the education sector to help more Scots go to university, and to create an "ambitious scholarship programme to ensure the ancient European nation of Scotland continues to attract significant numbers of European students to study here".

Some 21,505 EU students studied at Scottish universities in 2018/19, according to the latest Holyrood figures. A total of 15,310 full-time students received funding in the same year.

Professor Andrea Nolan, convener of Universities Scotland, said it is "reassuring" the money saved will remain in the sector and provides an opportunity "to fully-fund the undergraduate education of Scottish students and shift the public funding of degree places on to solid ground for the first time in years".

But she warned: "A move to international fee status for EU students from 2021 represents a big change to policy and funding at a challenging time for higher education so it will require very careful transition planning to avoid sharp shocks that could further destabilise certain degree programmes or institutions.

"We also need early certainty about how the change affects students from the Republic of Ireland."