Free tuition - costing us dear

Calton has already highlighted the ridiculous situation whereby EU students can benefit from free tuition in Scotland whereas English students can't. Now we have Northern Irish students applying for Republic of Ireland passports to try and benefit from the same loophole. Something has got to be done about this crazy anomaly before it bankrupts us.

Protectionist? Moi?

Calton is generally in favour of free tuition in Scotland however he does not see why we should be providing it to students from other EU countries when more than half of those countries charge fees to Scottish students studying in their institutions. Predictably, there has been a rise in the number of EU students coming to study in Scotland and a drop in the number going to England since England introduced tuition fees and Scotland scrapped them. If Scotland becomes independent but stays within the EU and England does the same, we will also then have to provide free tuition for England students since they will be a fellow EU country rather than a part of the same country, as they are now. Scottish students studying in England would pay English tuition fees as they do now. Of course the solution would be for Scotland (or the UK) to leave the EU, which is Calton's preferred option. Protectionist? Mais oui! Given that EU students are costing us £75 million a year, can we afford not to be?