Yet another hurdle... (Another Mother...please read!)

[Rob Clark]

What I meant was, why would anybody want to attend a university whose stated policies make it clear that – in some subjects at least – the university doesn’t particularly want them?

My kids are lovely any university would be lucky to have them so why choose one that treats them as second-class citizens?

[another mother]

well of course I agree but I think there is so much to be said for the actual educational set up that it's worth considering.

[Looking for help]

From my experience many Scottish state schoolstudents do not have the same inclination to study away from home and often pick local uni's. However in a place like Edinburgh where 25% of school kids are at independent schools these children tend to opt for uni's outside of Edinburgh. There are just not enough Scottish students that apply which are of a good enough calibre so having a system that favours them has little impact. Still I think we should boycott the place as it's the English that are effectively funding the Scottish institutions whilst everyone else get a free place!

The reason many Scottish students do not study away from home is because very few of them are actually 18 when they are due to start. I had just turned 17, and my best friend was just 16 in the April before the first term began. Nowadays I admit most students are encouraged to stay on for a 6th year at school and do Advanced Highers. However many students will still be less than 18 at the start of term due to the children's school age in each year running from 1 March - 28 February. I don't think it has anything to do with their intellectual calibre. I also think it is a bit unfair to say that the English are funding these places - all the people in the UK who pay taxes are funding all the universities in the UK. As far as the fees being paid, well that may be another issue, but in a devolved parliament in charge of education, why not? If there was a devolved English parliament possibly the same rules would apply here too, but a word of caution - students in Scotland do not have the same access to student loans that apply south of the border. These are all means tested on the parents, and therefore often adjusted to pitiful levels, compared with the system here where you can not declare your income and your child still gets 75% of the maximum loan, relieveing a bit of the burden. My brother in Scotland is almost crippled by the cost of sending 5 children to university - their student loans would not have kept them in accomodation never mind food for 1 month. ( He lives in Perth so his children had to live away from home). However at least here we can expect our children to be able to live off their loans, if not pay some of their accomodation fees too.

[T.i.p.s.y]

LFH,

I am not being clear. If most students go to the local uni but the brightest in Edinburgh do not - which is the case - then they will not get the best Scottish students. Each local uni gets their best but Edinburgh which has a high proportion of independent students and moreso at sixth form evacuate on mass out of Edinburgh.

I am all for a devolved government but they like to tap into England's resources when they feel like it. To offer EU citizens a free education but not the English is spiteful and I would have thought illegal.

[Looking for help]

I'm sure they have a limited pot to do with as they see fit....we only hear down here about the great free stuff like university fees and old people's homes, but to be honest, when your ageing MIL cannot get a doctor to visit my ill disabled brother in law at home and has to push his wheelchair from one end of the village to the other to see a doctor , you can see that it is not always that great there. There are trade offs and perhaps, their decision to allow free tuition means that there are issues elsewhere that we take for granted.
Edinburgh is such a funny place, I wouldn't want to go there , but Glasgow on the other hand, that's a better place altogether

[Flamenco]

. . . however if you are in a top inde then Edinburgh love you. As said before, it is filled with Harrovians so probably another reason not to send DC's there!

Think I'm beginning to agree with you on this, Tipsy. I do know of many kids the kind you said who go there.

I was talking to a lucky chap just yesterday who's got an offer from Edinburgh for Medicine this September. But alas, Edinburgh won't have the pleasure of having him.

I said 'lucky chap' because Imperial and another London Uni also offered him Medicine. But alas, Imperial and another London Uni won't have the pleasure of having him either.

That's because Cambridge also offered him Medicine which is where he's heading.

[mummog]

My DS included Edinburgh in his list of choices for Geography. Four of them responded (with 3 offers and 1 rejection) weeks ago. Edinburgh eventually informed him last Friday that he would not be invited to grace their hallowed halls with his presence later this year. Why leave it so late to inform a candidate when, presumably, they had no intention of making him an offer. He had read the newspaper article but assumed from their silence that no news may be good news. Still - their loss!