Racist Scottish university policies

They have the capacity to influence English legislation, but in practice they have had precisely zero influence to this day on English policy, since every piece of legislation passed since devolution would have been passed regardless of whether Scottish politicians had a vote on it. And, for the third time, this loophole will be closed in the near future, so even if the Scottish illuminati had decided the result of every single policy vote in Westminster in the past 15 years, it would still be irrelevant to this discussion.

I am not wasting another second of my life discussing British politics with someone who doesn't know that Scotland is a country. Good night.

They have the capacity to influence English legislation, but in practice they have had precisely zero influence to this day on English policy, since every piece of legislation passed since devolution would have been passed regardless of whether Scottish politicians had a vote on it. And, for the third time, this loophole will be closed in the near future, so even if the Scottish illuminati had decided the result of every single policy vote in Westminster in the past 15 years, it would still be irrelevant to this discussion.

Not technically true....

ironically even though Scottish MP's voted for no tuition fee's in Scotland they voted in favor of raising fee's in the UK.... If they had actually done their jobs we wouldn't actually have the higher fee's we have now....

Maybe England should have it's own parliament, if they want these pesky mps from the rest of the UK meddling in their affairs then?

Not technically true....

ironically even though Scottish MP's voted for no tuition fee's in Scotland they voted in favor of raising fee's in the UK.... If they had actually done their jobs we wouldn't actually have the higher fee's we have now....

They aren't countries. Tell me do you hold an English or Scottish passport or do you have a British Passport.

How is it discrimination? England is a foreign country as far as the Scottish education system is concerned, so, like England, we make foreign students pay. Unfortunately EU law prohibits us from making actual foreigners pay, but we need to fund free education for native Scots somehow.

Besides, it doesn't affect English students at all: we wouldn't be able to fund Scottish students' tuition if English students didn't pay, so then everyone would have to pay. And English students are only paying the same amount they'd pay in England. So basically, either Scottish students lose out, or we milk the English students (which is only fair, since Scotland loses many of its best students to Oxbridge and London).

Oh, and of course, race refers to skin colour, so please don't devalue the struggles of real racism victims by using the term in a ridiculous argument about how you don't think its fair that you have to pay for Scottish universities when you have perfectly good universities (in fact, better) universities in England.

Congratulations, you win the most illogical and discriminatory post of the year award.

EU rules prohibit member states from discriminating on the grounds of nationality, meaning Scotland has to give free university education to EU students from outside the UK as this is what they offer to Scottish students. Yet Scotland's governement charges young people living in England, Wales and Northern Ireland the full tution fees.

This policy is blatant racist discrimination, how can Mr Salmond justify charging English students yet not Polish students; despite the fact we are all students living within the EU?

The Scottish governemnt is currently using a loophole in EU law where EU regulations on discrimination do not apply within member states. However, I believe that this issue is racist discrimination and action against it must be taken.

In my opinion, what makes the whole issue worse is that in if Scotland becomes independent this autumn, Mr Salmond's white paper on independence has proposed to continue charging British students the full university fees! This is while continuing to allow all other EU students free tution! EU laws require Mr Salmond to make an objective justification for this, yet I cannot understand how there can be any justification other than blatant racism.

I am a 15 year old English secondary student and I do not look forward to facing the currently inevitable racial discrimination if I choose to apply to Scottish university.

That was the Higher Education bill, which included many aspects that were relevant to Scotland. They had a choice, to vote on a matter which affected England, or not to vote on a matter which affected Scotland. If the bill had been composed more intelligently then that wouldn't have happened: as it was, they did nothing wrong, the bill was proposed by the Tories so its them you can blame for not doing their jobs, not Scottish MPs.

The higher education "act" 2004 only affects Scotland and northern Ireland in regards to the Arts and Humanities Research Council. It's quite funny to be honest, Scottish MP's only believe an uni education should be free if your Scottish... rather nationalistic isn't it?

The scottish government is given a set budget to spend based on it`s resident population. Why should this money be used to provide public services to those who don`t live here? I wouldn`t expect the welsh taxpayer to pay for my education when I don`t live there and aren`t budgeted for.

It`s really no different from the "postcode lottery" that exists where people receive different levels of NHS treatment depending on where they live, as individual NHS trusts set their own spending priorities.

And since when does nationalism = racism? Why in the world should we give the same treatment to foreigners, who don't pay taxes or contribute to our society throughout their life, as we do to our own people? Why do English people feel they are entitled to get a free ride in Scotland, like we're some sort of conquered province or theme park. We are a country with an agenda to run, not a charity. Nobody in this thread has given a good reason as to why English students deserve free tuition fees. The only reason given is that EU students have them: that's not our fault, that's the EU's fault.

And why wouldn't they agree with it? As I said, if the bill had been composed more intelligently by the government (my mistake, it was Labour back then) then this wouldn't have happened, but as it was they agreed with the part that effected Scotland, and were apathetic about the part that didn't. Its their job to represent their constituents, not constituents in England.

It is not racial discrimination because it applies to all races. It does not discriminate against people being English it discriminates against people habitually living in England. And the reason that students are charged fees and not polish is because if a scottish habitual resident went to Poland to study they would not be charged fees but they would if they went yo study in england

Last I checked, "English bastard" is not a race.

The Scottish MP's mindset is, we vote on our issue's, you cannot. However we can vote on your issues....

Except, as I said, there hasn't been a single bill passed due to Scottish MP votes since devolution that only affected England, so that rather puts paid to that ridiculous allegation.

Anything concerning education is generally a English only issue... tuition fee's was one such thing.