Student leaders in Scotland reacted angrily yesterday after it emerged that thousands of postgraduates have received an unexpected demand to pay their graduate endowment charge immediately.

The Scottish government is scrapping the one-off charge of £2,289 for current students, but 3,000 postgraduates — who have already incurred the charge but not yet paid — have been told that they will have to pay up immediately. They had believed that they could delay payment until the end of their studies.

The agency responsible for administering the charges blamed “accounting procedures” for the sudden demand.

The outstanding debt owed by Scotland's postgraduate students amounts to £6.6 million.

Students urged Fiona Hyslop, the Scottish Education Secretary, to intervene on their behalf, claiming that the abolition of the graduate endowment could lead to an increase in student debt instead of the planned decrease.

James Alexander, president of NUS Scotland, said: “Obviously the abolition of the endowment has been a good thing — we were pleased to see that happen. But we are extremely disappointed that a previously positive benefit for postgraduate students appears to have been removed with the introduction of this legislation.”

The students affected by the abolition of the charge have been sent a letter from the Student Awards Agency for Scotland, which blames accounting procedures for the immediate demand. It says: “Our accounting procedures mean that all students must now settle outstanding liabilities as we cannot allow further deferment.”

The SNP-led administration at Holyrood won significant support from students in last year's elections after it promised to wipe out student debt and reintroduce grants as well as ending the graduate endowment.

The Parliament voted in February to abolish the graduate endowment but no funding has been allocated so far for the servicing of debt and there are plans for only a phased introduction of grants.

Claire Baker, Labour's higher education spokeswoman, claimed that the decision to force postgraduates to pay their endowment now “reveals the SNP's attitude towards students in Scotland”.

She said: “The deferment to pay the graduate endowment was offered to students by the previous government to encourage them to carry on their studies as far as they could.

“By demanding full payment immediately, in some kind of final demand, the SNP has pulled the rug from under thousands of students who had budgeted to pay this many years down the line.”

SNP sources last night ridiculed Labour for complaining that some people would have to pay the charge that it had introduced.

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