A ROW over graduation fees at a leading Scottish university has sparked calls for the charges to be scrapped.
Student leaders said the £50 fees currently charged by many institutions should be abolished.
The call from student body NUS Scotland came after an anatomy student at Glasgow University took to social media platform Twitter to raise concerns over graduation charges.
Fiona Ballantyne, 32, wrote: “£50 to graduate from Glasgow University and if I want to go to the ceremony, that’s £42 as well for gown hire. Guess I won’t be graduating then. I’d also like to point out that Edinburgh University has no fee.”
Read more: Universities challenged on graduation fees
Responding to the tweet, lawyer Aamer Anwar, the university rector, said: “It is really sad that after studying so hard our students should not be able to graduate because of the cost.”
He added: “Most students dream of the day they will graduate, despite all the struggles they have faced along the way. To then find out that you can’t graduate because of the cost really is a kick in the teeth.
“Graduation day is supposed to be about celebration and not treating students as a cash cow. As for the gown company, who are a private firm, we need to have a look at why they need to charge so much for only a few hours hire.”
A spokeswoman for Glasgow University said officials had already decided to abolish graduation fees in future years, with a student committee currently looking at bringing it forward to the current year.
She added: “We shall be in a position to make an announcement on this in the near future. Gown hire is provided by an external company and it is up to individual students whether they choose to pay for this cost.”
Later, Ms Ballantyne said there was no reason why the university couldn’t scrap fees this year.
She said: “While some may complain that we already get free tuition and that £50 is so little to pay, it is a vast sum of money for those of us who are mature students and have other commitments.
“Universities push for inclusiveness, and yet still fail to help those from low income backgrounds. Hopefully they make the right decision and more people get to celebrate their achievements.”
The concerns were backed by Jodie Waite, vice president of NUS Scotland, who said: “After years of hard-work and mounting student debt, graduation should be the big pay-off, not the big pay-out and every university should follow the lead of those who’ve already scrapped graduation charges.
“As the Scottish education sector strives to widen access to higher education, it can’t be right that graduation is based on the ability to pay.
“Whether that’s ensuring students have financial support to remain in education, or overcoming the financial barriers they might face in graduating, graduation must be accessible to every student.”
While not all universities charge students to graduate many do with a typical fee being £45 or £50 plus £50 to hire a graduation gown.
The costs usually cover a graduation certificate, a programme of the day’s events as well as membership to an alumni society and are usually compulsory. Some universities charge a lower fee if students do not attend in person.
Read more: Universities challenged on graduation fees
A spokesman for Universities Scotland said: “Where there are costs associated with graduations, universities will be as transparent as possible about what they are and whether they are optional.
“Where possible, universities make hardship funds available to support students that require it.”
In 2014, universities were warned that they risk breaching consumer protection law by preventing students from graduating because of debts.
The Office of Fair Trading (OFT) said around three-quarters of UK universities had terms and conditions that could stop students graduating if they owe non-tuition fee debts, such as those for university accommodation, library fines or childcare services.
The watchdog said the “blanket use” of academic sanctions in such cases, regardless of the circumstances, could breach consumer protection law.
Why are you making commenting on The Herald only available to subscribers?
It should have been a safe space for informed debate, somewhere for readers to discuss issues around the biggest stories of the day, but all too often the below the line comments on most websites have become bogged down by off-topic discussions and abuse.
heraldscotland.com is tackling this problem by allowing only subscribers to comment.
We are doing this to improve the experience for our loyal readers and we believe it will reduce the ability of trolls and troublemakers, who occasionally find their way onto our site, to abuse our journalists and readers. We also hope it will help the comments section fulfil its promise as a part of Scotland's conversation with itself.
We are lucky at The Herald. We are read by an informed, educated readership who can add their knowledge and insights to our stories.
That is invaluable.
We are making the subscriber-only change to support our valued readers, who tell us they don't want the site cluttered up with irrelevant comments, untruths and abuse.
In the past, the journalist’s job was to collect and distribute information to the audience. Technology means that readers can shape a discussion. We look forward to hearing from you on heraldscotland.com
Comments & Moderation
Readers’ comments: You are personally liable for the content of any comments you upload to this website, so please act responsibly. We do not pre-moderate or monitor readers’ comments appearing on our websites, but we do post-moderate in response to complaints we receive or otherwise when a potential problem comes to our attention. You can make a complaint by using the ‘report this post’ link . We may then apply our discretion under the user terms to amend or delete comments.
Post moderation is undertaken full-time 9am-6pm on weekdays, and on a part-time basis outwith those hours.
Read the rules here