A minimum income for students would help guarantee stronger financial support for those at university and college, Scottish Labour has said.
The proposals were initially outlined in an independent report for the Scottish Government published in November 2017, titled: ‘A New Social Contract for Students – Fairness, Parity and Clarity’.
It set out a number of recommendations on how financial support for students could be enhanced, including providing parity for those accessing funding, increasing clarity by moving to a centralised online portal, as well as the introduction of a minimum income.
The income would be delivered through a mixture of bursaries and student loans, and would be set at a minimum figure of £8,100.
Despite its support for the ‘New Social Contract’ for students, Scottish Labour has accused the Scottish Government of ‘watering down’ its acceptance of the report’s recommendations.
The party has said that it will this week move to force a vote in the Scottish Parliament on the implementation of a minimum income.
Scottish Labour’s education spokesman Iain Gray said: “Financial support for students at university and college has been overlooked for too long in the political debate – it is time for that to change.
“Labour supports free tuition but students need to be able to access decent financial support when they actually get to college and university.
“That’s why Labour would implement the New Social Contract, which provides a minimum student income.
“It’s now down to other parties to either back our plans or explain to Scotland’s students why not.”
A Scottish Government spokeswoman said: “We support the ambition outlined in the Student Support Review to achieve a minimum income for our students.
“We have begun to implement this by increasing the care-experienced bursary to £8,100 per year.
“From 2019/20, we are increasing bursary support for students in both further and higher education and increasing the higher education bursary threshold from £19,000 to £21,000, ensuring that more students will be able to access the maximum bursary.
“Overall, we continue to invest record amounts in student support with over 120,000 undergraduates each year studying in Scotland benefiting from free tuition.
“Higher education students from the least well off backgrounds benefit from a minimum income guarantee of £7,625 per year and in further education, students can access a bursary of up to £4,247 per year.
“And we continue to keep university free from tuition fees, ensuring access to higher education is based on the ability to learn and not the ability to pay.”
Why are you making commenting on The National only available to subscribers?
We know there are thousands of National readers who want to debate, argue and go back and forth in the comments section of our stories. We’ve got the most informed readers in Scotland, asking each other the big questions about the future of our country.
Unfortunately, though, these important debates are being spoiled by a vocal minority of trolls who aren’t really interested in the issues, try to derail the conversations, register under fake names, and post vile abuse.
So that’s why we’ve decided to make the ability to comment only available to our paying subscribers. That way, all the trolls who post abuse on our website will have to pay if they want to join the debate – and risk a permanent ban from the account that they subscribe with.
The conversation will go back to what it should be about – people who care passionately about the issues, but disagree constructively on what we should do about them. Let’s get that debate started!
Callum Baird, Editor of The National
Comments: Our rules
We want our comments to be a lively and valuable part of our community - a place where readers can debate and engage with the most important local issues. The ability to comment on our stories is a privilege, not a right, however, and that privilege may be withdrawn if it is abused or misused.
Please report any comments that break our rules.
Read the rules here