scottish uni fees

are they cheaper for english students than english or welsh unis?
i know scottish degrees are usually 4yrs to english unis' 3 years, but per year is there a large difference? i read somewhere that for scottish pupils, local councils pay the fees but does anyone know what happens for english students? thanks

Reply 1

michaelnicholson88

Yes- if you are an English student in Scotland, you pay £1700 pa, compared with £3000 pa in England. These figures are higher for Medicine courses.

Reply 2

ILoveComplexNumbers

Fees are slightly cheaper but don't forget you're going to pay more because it's a 4 year course and accommodation, food etc in the 4th year will outweigh the savings unless you are living rough off sachets of tesco value cuppasoup.

And really if you consider the loss of salary for 4th year you're going to be £20k+ down most likely.

Reply 3

oxymoronic

19

ILoveComplexNumbers

Fees are slightly cheaper but don't forget you're going to pay more because it's a 4 year course and accommodation, food etc in the 4th year will outweigh the savings unless you are living rough off sachets of tesco value cuppasoup.

And really if you consider the loss of salary for 4th year you're going to be £20k+ down most likely.

Its as expensive as you make it, and why should it have to be completley about money? I am glad my degree is 4 years, for one it gives me an extra year to decide what I want to do. Yes, I might be "20k+ down" but then I get an extra year to gain experience and make important decisions instead of rushing through them all.

OP- Michael is right, English, Welsh and Northen Irish students pay 1700 per year, the Scots and EU (non UK) students get it free.

Reply 4

Lady_Muck

14

So the fees aren't set to go up this year? Definitely staying at £1700?

And ultimately, you are getting an MA as opposed to a BA and it's probably the cheaper way to go about things.

Reply 5

michaelnicholson88

Yes, the Scottish Parliament has committed themselves to not raising fees.

However, you seem to have a misconception about the classification of degree. Confusingly for some, an MA is actually the Ancient Scottish equivalent of a BA. That is, it is the terminology used by the Universities of Edinburgh, Glasgow, Aberdeen, St Andrews and Dundee to refer to the exact same thing as a BA. This is a traditional Scottish thing that evolved separately from English terminology, but ultimately it is the same as an English BA.

Reply 6

oxymoronic

19

Although as its a 4 year course, most students take 3 subjects in their 1st and 2nd years so our education will be better in the long run as we haven't only focused on one subject. For example, at UCL I was going to do pure linguistics and would have had 5 contact hours a week. Here, I have 5 hours for Linguistics, 5 for Spanish and 3 for Anthropology. There is definitley a lot more contact time in the Scottish system, and the extra subject- esspecially as mine is a language- will proove very useful for job prospects etc in the future, which I wouldn't have had the chance to do at an English uni.

Reply 7

lilcathstar

2

I think the way the system worked before was that English, Welsh and NIrish people got the 4th year's fees for free, so not to act as a disincentive to study in Scotland... does anyone know if this is the case now?

Edit: It seems like it might be... just found this http://www.registry.ed.ac.uk/Fees/4tyYrUGFees.htm which hasn't actually been updated since May 04, or the introduction of the higher fees, but you would have thought that they'd have taken it down if it wasnt applicable anymore!

Reply 8

lilcathstar

2

Oh and about the fees going up or not... on the registry website, it says the fees haven't been confirmed for 07/08 yet and will be settled by the scottish executive in Spring 07.

Reply 9

L i b

19

angelmxxx

i read somewhere that for scottish pupils, local councils pay the fees but does anyone know what happens for english students? thanks

The Scottish Executive pays the full fees of all students domiciled in Scotland or any EU country except the rest of the UK at a certain time before their application was made.

English, Welsh and Northern Irish students pay.

michaelnicholson88

Yes, the Scottish Parliament has committed themselves to not raising fees.

However, you seem to have a misconception about the classification of degree. Confusingly for some, an MA is actually the Ancient Scottish equivalent of a BA. That is, it is the terminology used by the Universities of Edinburgh, Glasgow, Aberdeen, St Andrews and Dundee to refer to the exact same thing as a BA. This is a traditional Scottish thing that evolved separately from English terminology, but ultimately it is the same as an English BA.

The other British ancient universities - Oxford, Cambridge and Dublin - also do the undergraduate MA, with some slightly different provisions. It's not a distinctly Scottish thing.

Reply 10

michaelnicholson88

Actually that's not strictly true. Oxbridge and Dublin may confer an MA as a secondary degree to holders of a BA after a period of time has passed since they earned their BA. The BA, however, is still the undergraduate degree. In the Ancients of Scotland, the MA is the primary undergraduate degree.

Reply 11

jjarvis

14

Yeah, my dad was at Oxford in the early 80s and got a BA. He was all but dissertation on a PhD there and I think he got an MA conferred after a lapse of 5 years since he'd done work on his PhD. I'm not sure you get an MA automatically if you do a BA there...

As far as fees go, I'm pretty sure international student fees are going up (!), but I could be wrong. Also, I don't know if your fees stay set at what they are when you start your degree or if they go up. Can anybody shed light on this? I don't know if fees change for UK students from outwith Scotland or not...

Reply 12

michaelnicholson88

Yeah, it's not an automatic thing. It depends on academic distinction, though not necessarily further academic study.

Reply 13

Taiping

michaelnicholson88

Yes- if you are an English student in Scotland, you pay £1700 pa, compared with £3000 pa in England. These figures are higher for Medicine courses.

I thought it was completely free for all UK students. Do you have to be resident in Scotland for at least 3 years to qualify as a Scottish student?

If so, then I've been ranting on about English students stealing our funding by coming up to Scotish unis on completely unfounded grounds. :s-smilie:

I was under the impression that the "fees" that you paid was the student endowment that you pay in a similar manner to your student loan.

Please advise...

Reply 14

michaelnicholson88

Fees are paid by the Student Awards Agency For Scotland for Scottish students, and do not have to be paid back. Scottish students just pay a "Graduate Endownment" at the end of their degree. I'm not sure what that is right now but it is normally around £2000.

English, Northern Irish and Welsh students, on the other hand, must pay £1700 per annum if they study in Scotland. This is less than the £3000 they would pay in their own nations.

Non-British EU students have their fees paid for them in a similar manner to Scottish students.

I'm not sure what the residence requirement is.

Reply 15

yossarianlives

7

3 years to be resident, yes.

Reply 16

Taiping

michaelnicholson88

Fees are paid by the Student Awards Agency For Scotland for Scottish students, and do not have to be paid back. Scottish students just pay a "Graduate Endownment" at the end of their degree. I'm not sure what that is right now but it is normally around £2000.

English, Northern Irish and Welsh students, on the other hand, must pay £1700 per annum if they study in Scotland. This is less than the £3000 they would pay in their own nations.

Non-British EU students have their fees paid for them in a similar manner to Scottish students.

I'm not sure what the residence requirement is.

That's ridiculous! Foreign EU students get their tuition free? Surely that's not the case!

Reply 17

Lukas

13

you dont have to reside in Scotland for 3 years in order to get yout tuition fees paid...all you need to do is to be an EU, non-English/non-Welsh/non-N.Irish citizen, or live in an EU country for at least 3 years...what a great system :biggrin:

Reply 18

Bex.

Not sure if it's been mentioned as I only skimmed the thread but for my Edin is definitely a cheaper option - my course is 4 years everywhere, including Edin so it's preferable to be paying £1700 for the same amount of time i'd be otherwise paying £3k in england, and my year abroad is cheaper fees than that I do believe. So not all courses automatically get an extra year slapped on them in scotland as St Andrews wanted me to believe when I queried why I should do my course over 5 years there.

Reply 19

Lady_Muck

14

I don't actually see how people can say it's the same expense wise after 4 years. Balls is it!

English uni - 3 x £3k = 9k, straight up.
Scottish - 3 x 1.7k = 5100, no questions. You are absolutely not going to spend £4k in your 4th year!!

scottish uni fees

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