SCOTLAND: EU students 'exploit' local universities

16 January 2011

Scottish ministers claim that thousands of European students are exploiting Scotland's free university system to avoid paying escalating fees in their home countries. Latest admissions figures show the number of students from other EU countries taking up places at Scottish universities has nearly doubled in a decade to almost 16,000 last year, at a cost of nearly £75 million (US$118,83), writes Severin Carrell for The Guardian.

Mike Russell, the Scottish education minister, said the figures showed that European students were becoming an increasingly significant drain on the university sector at a time of deepening cuts in public spending.

Russell is to press Europe's education commissioner, Androulla Vassiliou, to change European university funding rules since the cost had now increased five-fold in the last decade. The number of EU students getting free places went up 17% in 2009-10. By comparison, the number of EU students taking up places at English universities went up by 6%.
Full report on The Guardian site

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