Bob Doris, Sandra White, Bill Kidd and Bashir Ahmad, SNP MSPs for Glasgow were today campaigning in Glasgow University ahead of the stage 3 Parliamentary debate.  The Graduate Endowment Bill was published last October and the final vote will be on Thursday.  They were also showing their support for the Hardeep Singh Kholi Campaign for the Rectorship of Glasgow University.

Commenting, Bob Doris MSP said: "The SNP have always believed that Education should be free for all and not based on your ability to pay.

"There are nearly 10,000 students who are liable to pay the £2,289 fee and removing that will be a welcome boost to both them and their families.

"Too many of our young people start their adult life snowed under with debt and I hope the Parliament sees sense and gives them, and Scotland, a hand on Thursday."

Sandra White MSP added: "It was a bad way of raising revenue anyway.

"Around a third of all money collected was spent administering the scheme itself so the tax payer lost out and our graduates entered the work place up to their eyes in debt.

"The Liberals introduced this tax on learning but on Thursday they have a chance to redeem themselves and vote it out of existence."

Bill Kidd MSP said: "Scottish education has had a great name throughout the world and rightly so.

"The Graduate Endowment however is a disincentive to learning and should be removed.

"For years Labour have been banging on about "Education, Education, Education. 

"Well I agree with them and on Thursday they have a chance to back up their words with worthwhile action.

"Lets see if they'll vote to rid students of this financial albatross and encourage them to come and study at great institutions like this."

Hardeep Singh Kohli said: "The graduate endowment is an example of what can go wrong when politicians introduce half-baked education policies.
 
"Sweeping it into the dustbin of history will be of great benefit to Scotland's students and I truly hope the parliament will do so.
 
"It is absurd that when there is the unfortunate expectation that graduate's will have some form of debt anyway, that we then charge them an extra £2289 which just gets added to the original debt."

Notes: 

• Parliamentary timetable is here: 
• Scrapping the £2,289 endowment will cost about £15m.
• Up-front university tuition fees in Scotland were abolished under the previous administration.
• Students from outside Scotland but who study here pay £1,700 a year in tuition fees, or £2,700 for those studying medicine.
• The endowment fee is paid when students complete their degrees.
• Students with a disability and lone parents are amongst those who are exempt.
• Fiona Hyslop the Education Secretary has guaranteed that the money distributed through bursaries and grants this year would be funded directly by the Scottish Government.
• It is estimated that around £12.7m has been paid back in cash from the three cohorts of graduates liable to pay the fee with £26.3 million being added to loans. Of this £26.3m only £57,000 has been returned to the taxpayer.