Scotland to scrap tuition fees
Updated on 13 June 2007
Scotland's new government announces plans to scrap the £2,000 fee paid by all graduates north of the border.
Education Secretary Fiona Hyslop said access to education should be based on the ability to learn, not the ability to pay.
But the move will create a two-tier system where free education is only available to Scots, although everyone in Britain will pay for it.
Students in Scotland will no longer have to pay for their undergraduate degrees. That is the promise of the new SNP government.
The announcement applies to around 50,000 students currently studying at Scottish universities, and to all who follow them.
But there is one important caveat: those who come from England and Wales will still be required to pay enhanced fees of up to £3,000 per year.
Gordon Brown could be considering a review of the way expenditure is allocated, conscious that he could be a high-profile casualty of English resentment against profligate Scots.
What is more, taxpayers throughout the whole of the UK are footing the bill for the SNP's commitment to free education. That is why some Westminster MPs believe it is now time to look again at how Scotland is funded.
The Scottish government won't like being compared to an English local authority - it claims that Scotland actually makes a net contribution to the British exchequer.
But even the man who drew up the so-called "Barnett formula", used to decide how much money Scotland gets, believes it should now be scrapped
There are hints that Gordon Brown could be considering a review of the way expenditure is allocated when he enters Downing Street, conscious that he could be the most high-profile casualty of English resentment against profligate Scots.
Channel 4 News was joined from Edinburgh by Scotland's Finance Secretary, John Swinney and in Westminster by Lord Forsyth, the former Conservative Scottish Secretary.
