Scottish independence: Academics pose the questions can Scotland afford higher education in an independent Scotland, SNP plan mass immigration and giving away £1 billion pounds in aid, Salmond and Sturgeon depriving poorest Scots of a future!

Dear All

Many moons ago, I wrote posts about Scottish students who would end up being squeezed out of a university education.

Guess what?

George Laird right again, if you doubt this, then check the blog on higher education posts and you will see I recognised the problems in advance.

Recently SNP supporters having been looking at my writings into higher education; specifically my time at Glasgow University!

Not that this is for enlightenment, but for the purposes of smearing!

If they thought they were doing to dig up a hidden past, sadly, it was all put into the public domain, which again highlights what I have been saying about the Scottish National Party.

There really is a genuine lack of talent in their ranks, from top to bottom.

At this point, I would like to say hello to my new reader from Cambridge who is quite the avid reader of my writings.

Enjoy!

Back to higher Ed, the SNP have botched higher education, it is beyond their scope, unsurprisingly; the post is filled with a Salmond crony called Mike Russell.

The education sector has no confidence in him, and who can blame them.

Scots students could be squeezed out of their home universities if there is a yes to independence and free tuition continues, experts have suggested.

Sounds like the recognise a problem; however their solution is slightly off, in other words they seem to be advocating screwing students for tuition fees.

Ideally, universities need to be slimmed down, the college sector should be expanded, and community colleges run by local councils introduced as a revenue provider using schools and teaching various subjects, the bonus it helps communities and people who need extra help to get on in life.

And of course the Scottish Funding Council needs to be split in two, SFC (Universities) and SFC (Colleges), colleges have been screwed for funds by the SFC body being university dominated.

Edinburgh University academics have been looking at higher education in an independent Scotland, there would be an independent Scotland under Alex Salmond and Nicola Sturgeon, at the core the main problem is that they are too stupid, ignorant and small minded, they have no vision whether it is big or small.

Did you notice that the Scottish Government is now paralysed?

Currently, Scots and EU students pay no tuition fees at Scottish universities, while UK students pay annual fees, this would change if UK students were reclassified as EU students and free tuition would apply to them.

Scotland would be swamped by applications and as we have already seen, when it comes to the poorest and most disadvantaged, Scots already lose out.

Despite the SNP preaching equality, the university sector is run like a cartel, the Royal Society of Edinburgh members have a stranglehold on the main posts within the sector. RSE is a private members only club by invitation only.

And if you think they are interested in giving poor Scots access to higher education, don’t delude yourselves; St Andrews University with a rather large student body has one of the poorest records of admitting the poorest Scots, year on year.

What did the SNP do to fix the problem?

Talk and not much else!

Fairness and equality are the buzzwords to hide discrimination and failure, 120,000 colleges have been lost since the SNP became the government, rather makes a farce of the ‘yours for Scotland’ shit they parrot out.

The latest research paper is by Sheila Riddell, Elisabet Weedon and Sarah Minty funded by the Economic and Social Research Council.

In higher education, academics come up with little ideas and then go ask for funding, then publish to get credit and trot off to conferences.

The hotel accommodation is excellent from what I remember some of my lecturer friends telling me, 5 Star apparently is great, and the food, so yum.

In Edinburgh briefing paper, titled The Funding of Higher Education in Scotland, the UK and internationally; personally, the sector is there already, the sector cannot continue without a major fix in thinking.

What is a university for is a good question, what should they be teaching and who should get the opportunity to attend.

It isn’t just the brightest at uni, believe me, 20 years, I meet some people who graduated who education didn’t benefit, pond life when they came and pond life when they left.

The report on what if Scotland became independent said:

"Clearly, free tuition in Scotland would be a major attraction for students from the UK and other EU member states. However, there would be a danger that such students could squeeze out Scottish domiciled students."

Happens already!

But the real nub is the suggestion that independence could mean no beans in the bank to fund the indulgences of high salaries and big perks enjoyed at present.

The authors suggested that there would be a funding shortfall faced by the government of an independent Scotland.

They propose three possible solutions.

Introducing fees for all students

Negotiating an agreement with the EU whereby quotas could be reserved for Scottish domiciled students

The introducing a separate admissions system for students from other EU countries

Free higher education isn’t free, and never was, the taxpayer funds it, the general idea is that education benefits society as a whole. In Scotland, the tuition argument is a hot topic, seen as a political point scorer, Labour and Tories seem favour tuition fees, because it shores up the status quo and pass the burden onto students.

And we should remember, most of the politicians who advocate screwing the poor benefited from free higher education, they just want to pull the ladder.

Down South English students gets ripped off to the tune of £9,000 a year, there are many reasons why, but a chief one I would suggest is that the political elite are just copying what is done in America.

If you look at the SNP, they copy Barack Obama campaigning techniques; the reason is that despite university education, they aren’t able to come up with original thought.

As to Sheila Riddell, Elisabet Weedon and Sarah Minty, I am sure that their paper will generate a lot of interest, and possibly more grants, however, unless there is a major reform in higher education, there will be a lot of unanswered questions.

And then at some point, a decision will need to be made to fix, can’t be done in the parliament, independence has effectively killed government; this term has been a complete waste of time.

As they say, the question is academic because there isn’t going to be independence, Alex Salmond and Nicola Sturgeon has pretty much killed off any hope of success on that front.

Oh, and before I forget, possibly somewhere in their paper, they might have said, that more work is required on this subject, it is a byline for setting themselves up for their next grant application.

The SNP isn’t interested in giving working class young Scots a future in an independent Scotland, they are planning to allow mass immigration and giving away about £1 billion pounds of Scottish taxpayers’ money a year. This means few opportunities for a job or even an education place, any hope of a future will rest in the slim chance that a poor Scot manages to get a place in the ‘uni lottery’.

This pretty much kills the lie that the Scottish National Party under Alex Salmond and Nicola Sturgeon is standing up for young Scots.

Yours sincerely

George Laird

The Campaign for Human Rights at Glasgow University