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 A message of support from Jamie Hepburn MSP
“Education is a right – not a privilege”
“Shame on you for turning blue”
“They say cut back – we say fight back”
These chants will echo outside Holyrood and Westminster in the coming days, as students gather to protest the UK Government’s plans to increase tuition fees in England’s universities. But they will be familiar to many on the inside of Holyrood and Westminster, because a decade ago similar protests took place as first London Labour and then the Lib/Lab coalition in Edinburgh introduced tuition fees and the Graduate Endowment.
The chants will be even more familiar to some because a number of members of the Parliaments – myself included – took part in those demonstrations, and pledged their belief in free education. In the case of some Lib Dem MPs it was not years, but months ago that they were solemnly declaring their intention to vote against a rise in tuition fees south of the border. Yet on Thursday, some of those same Lib Dem MPs will meekly follow their Conservative masters through the lobby to vote for an upper tuition fees limit of £9,000 in England.
As an SNP MSP, five years after graduating, I was proud to vote for the abolition of the Graduate Endowment and the restoration of free education in Scotland. That was a pledge the SNP had made to voters in Scotland, it was a pledge I had fought for as a member and convenor of the Federation of Student Nationalists, and it was a pledge we kept because of the centuries-old principle of free education in our country. Free education is a principle which ignores income and background in favour of ability and potential. It is a principle which allowed Scotland to lead the way internationally and boast some of the highest literacy rates in the world. With literacy came the remarkable achievement of a young farmhand by the name of Robert Burns becoming one of the world's most renowned poets, not just in his own time, but for all time. Few other countries of the time could have claimed such a result.
SNP Members of Parliament in Westminster joined students from Scotland – including members of the Federation of Student Nationalists – in Novembers’ major NUS demonstration against the UK Government’s plans. Lifting the cap on tuition fees in England is not simply wrong in principle – there are serious implications for Scotland which could result in fewer resources for higher education here and a bigger challenge for Scottish students. That’s why SNP MPs will vote against the coalition’s plans.
The Tories introduced loans, Labour brought in fees and the Lib Dems are now helping the Tories increase them. The Tories in Scotland have even been clear that they would be happy with fees of up to £9,000 being introduced here - it is also clear that current limit will not be set in stone. Only the SNP is left as the party for students in Scotland and offers them the opportunity to be part of something better.
The decisions that are made in the coming months about higher education will affect not only students at or about to go to university – they will affect the life chances of future generations. I do not want my child or any other child to face the prospect of being priced out of higher education. Education should be a great social leveller that allows everyone, whatever their means, to reach their full potential and contribute back to society not simply through their earnings but through their better understanding of the world around them. That is why the Lib Dems should be ashamed for 'turning blue', why if they want to cut back, we will be part of the fight back, and why education must always remain a right – and not a privilege.
Jamie Hepburn
Wednesday 8th December 2010
Aileen Campbell MSP & Jamie Hepburn MSP at the Abolition of the Graduate Endowment rally 2008
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