Poll shows two-thirds of Scots back a graduate contribution

A poll in today's Scotsman has shown that two-thirds of Scots back a graduate contribution of up to £4,000 to the cost of their university education.

David McLetchie, Scottish Conservative Campaign Manager for the Scottish Parliament election, said:

"This is more evidence, after last year's Scottish Social Attitudes Survey, that Scots are fair minded and accept that it is fair for graduates to make a contribution towards the cost of their University education. It is clear that, regardless of which party they support, people are in favour of this.

"In a perfect world everything would be free. But in the real world, voters accept that the costs have to be spread.

"Recent figures from the Office of National Statistics showed that, on average, a University graduate will earn £12,000 a year more than those who have not gone to university. Over a working life, that is a pay boost of half a million pounds.

"Despite all the evidence, Labour, Lib Dems and the SNP refuse to find the money needed to bridge the real funding gap. Scottish Conservative proposals for a graduate contribution, paid from future earning, at an affordable rate will mean that Scotland's universities can retain their excellence, retain their student numbers and we can also boost bursary support for students from poorer backgrounds by £55 million a year.

"By contrast, the deficit deniers in the other parties threaten our Universities' standing, threaten up to 13,000 student places and are out of tune with public opinion."

Below is the question from the YouGov poll, published in today's Scotsman – they are broken down into constituency and regional figures by party affiliation (with the regional figures in bold).

It has been proposed that once Scottish students graduate from Scottish universities they should then make a contribution of up to £4,000 to the cost of their university education once they are earning over a certain amount. Do you support or oppose this proposal?

Overall                               Con          Lab           LD             SNP

Support 65 per cent          81 (83)     56 (57)     79 (71)      66 (66)

Oppose 24 per cent          15 (14)     30 (29)     21 (22)      26 (26)

Don't know 11 per cent     4 (3)         14 (14)     0 (8)          8 (8)

Please click on the link for more information from the Scottish and British Social Attitudes Survey from October 2010 – key extract from the BBC report is immediately below:

"But it's not clear whether Scots are so keen on providing free tuition to all students."

"The most recent surveys show 63% of people north of the border think students should pay at least something towards their tuition, while in England, it's 66%.

"Only 30% of Scots agree with the Scottish government that no student should pay towards tuition, while that's true of 25% in England. So not much difference across the border there."

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-scotland-11506103

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