The Scottish Government has vowed to "consider carefully" what impact Theresa May's proposal to raise the repayment threshold for student loans will have on graduates north of the border.
Ministers made the commitment after Mrs May used the opening day of the Conservative Party Conference in Manchester to announce that the amount people can earn before making student loan repayments will rise from £21,000 to £25,000.
Scottish Labour voiced fears that the move could leave Scottish graduates, who currently start repaying loans when they earn £17,775 a year, worse off than their counterparts in England.
Education spokesman Iain Gray said: "The SNP government should ensure the threshold is lifted in the next budget.
"Every year that goes by without this happening is another year that sees graduates miss out.
"This is even more urgent now given Theresa May's U-turn.
"This would be an important step in delivering a better deal for young graduates and SNP ministers should not drag their heels in delivering it."
Mrs May also pledged tuition fees in England will be frozen at the current £9,250 level until 2019, rather than increase with inflation by £250.
But this was derided by Scottish First Minister Nicola Sturgeon, who said on Twitter: "A freeze in already exorbitant tuition fees is hardly a revolution.
"Why not follow @theSNP @scotgov and abolish tuition fees?"
A Scottish Government spokeswoman said: "Free university tuition forms the core of our offer to students and we are absolutely committed to maintaining the policy.
"It means that over 120,000 undergraduates studying in Scotland each year do not incur debts of up to £27,000 to pay for university education, unlike their peers elsewhere in the UK.
"While we welcome the acknowledgement today from the UK Government through their proposal to freeze tuition fees, that their policy is not working, it is disappointing that they are not following our lead and abolishing them altogether."
The spokeswoman added: "We will carefully consider the implications of their proposals for students studying at Scottish institutions, but it is important to do so within the context of student support that already exists here.
"Our independent review of student support continues and will report its recommendations this autumn.
"This government remains committed to providing the lowest income students with a bursary, unlike the UK Government; average levels of student loan debt in Scotland remain the lowest in the UK, and students from the lowest income households benefit from a minimum income guarantee of £7,625, including a bursary of £1,875."
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 hereLast Updated:
Report this comment Cancel