GRADUATE ENDOWMENT ABOLISHED

The Federation of Student Nationalists today (28/02/08) celebrated the Abolition of the Graduate Endowment - the back-door fee on Scotland’s students. Labour and the Tories voted together against the abolition.

The FSN has always stood by the principle of free education and acknowledged education to be a right, not a privilege. This has been a foundation of Scottish education for centuries. The graduate endowment had completely failed in its attempts to increase participation amongst those from poorer backgrounds and had burden Scotland’s graduates with debt and Scotland’s students with financial anxiety.

The FSN had lobbied MSPs both at this vote and at the previous one in November. Members wrote to their MSPs; stood outside Parliament first thing in the morning to lobby them and staged a demonstration outside Parliament in support of the Abolition.

Now that the Graduate Endowment has been abolished Scotland is taking a step closer to a truly inclusive Higher Education system.

ENDS