The Scottish government will “do its best” to make sure that the country’s college and university campuses remain “reflections of our traditional internationalism”, the country’s minister for FE, HE and science has said.
Speaking to Tes as the country continued to ease lockdown restrictions following the coronavirus pandemic, and after it was announced that following Brexit, students from the EU will soon have to pay tuition fees when studying in Scotland, Richard Lochhead said the country would “play to its strengths” to ensure learners continued to come to Scotland to study and live.
While he expected blended learning to continue at colleges and universities to continue in the new academic year, and “we’re not going back to the old normal”, too heavy a focus on online learning would impact the student experience.
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The experience of place
“I think there’s nothing more important than place. Half the experience of being a college student, or university student is the place, as well as the people and the culture and experience. And the experience you are going to get at City of Glasgow College, or Forth Valley College or going to college in the Highlands and Islands of Scotland will be radically different to the experience you’ll get in other parts of the world. That’s part of the education experience and education you get.”
Mr Lochhead said one of the biggest strengths of Scottish education was its internationalism and its close ties as a country with Europe that goes back centuries. “It is a travesty that, against our wishes, that is in danger of being damaged by Brexit. And one example, of course, is that we now have to bring to an end free tuition for EU students.”
The minister added: “We are now in the cold light of day where we are having to deal with Brexit and can’t pretend it’s not there. And there’s no doubt that we would be exposed potentially to very serious legal challenges if we were to continue the policy even though we’re no longer within the EU.”
However, he stressed he was keen to explore “every means possible to ensure that Scotland remains an attractive destination for European students to study, and indeed live. And I’m going to be discussing with the sector how we can expand our existing scholarship programmes in Scotland to ensure that there are more opportunities for students from EU countries.”
While most of these programmes were currently limited to students coming to Scotland to study at university, he said he had “an open mind at the moment”.
He said: “One of the great joys of going to college is you meet people from all around the world and we are very worried about the impact of a hostile immigration policy plus a hard Brexit. I am, however, getting a lot of comfort from the fact that, overseas, Scotland has a very strong brand and our values shine through.
“People do differentiate between Scotland and the rest of the United Kingdom when it comes to these kinds of issues. So we will play to our strengths and we’ll do our best to remain an open and welcoming country where our campuses are very reflective of our traditional internationalism.”
“The next biggest challenge is trying to rescue Erasmus, which is enormously important in Scotland. Just like we have a disproportionate number of EU students in further and higher education, we also have a disproportionate number of Erasmus participants in further and higher education, in youth work and in other areas of Scottish life. The signs are not good from the UK government about that continuing.”
