THE Scottish Nationalists have become the first party to pledge an end to the fees discrimination against English students at Scottish universities.

The party has said that it will scrap the anomaly whereby English students at higher education institutions north of the border pay thousands of pounds more in tuition fees than home-based Scots and other European Union students.

The Labour and Liberal Democrat-led Scottish executive introduced the higher charges in response to the imposition of top-up fees at English universities.

Fearing a surge of applicants escaping the charges, Holyrood ministers imposed annual charges on English students of £1,700 from next month.

Those from Scotland and other EU countries such as France, Greece and Estonia will pay only £2,000 for their full four years of study. For English students the total will be £6,800.

Several English students have sought to challenge the legality of the move, which they claimed breached their human rights.

Now the Scottish National party (SNP) has denounced the charges as “discriminatory” and “anti-English” and said that it will scrap them if it wins power in next year’s Scottish elections.

The party has already announced a £100m package for Scottish students and graduates which would see the graduate endowment fee of £2,145 abolished, making university education free for Scottish students. Under the new initiative, students from England and Wales would also receive free education.

Recent opinion polls have placed the SNP ahead of Labour and suggest that the most likely outcome next June would be an SNP/Liberal Democrat coalition. “English students would be treated the same as students from any other country, including Scots,” said Fiona Hyslop, higher education spokeswoman for the SNP.

“We would be looking to undo this situation. We are the only party that has made a stance on this. We want to be broad-minded about this.”

At present there are 15,000 English undergraduate students at Scottish universities, compared with 10,000 graduate and undergraduate students from other EU states. Scrapping tuition fees for those from south of the border would cost £6.9m out of the Scottish parliament’s total budget of £23 billion.

Fears that there would be a rush of English students to Scottish universities ahead of the introduction of top-up fees in England and Wales have so far proved unfounded.

Only 1.7% more English students have applied for places at Scottish universities this year, compared with last, although the lure of free education would be stronger.

“English students come to Scotland for the quality of our education, not because it’s cheaper,” said Hyslop. “The experience so far [of Scottish universities] shows that there has not been a flood of English students. One university said they didn’t even have enough English students to fill a bus.

“The added cost of a four-year degree and extra travel expenses means we won’t see English students flooding to Scottish universities.”

A spokesman for the National Union of Students welcomed the SNP’s pledge, adding: “The current system is discriminatory. Any move to abolish tuition fees is welcomed. It’s fantastic that the SNP is opening up this debate.

“Now it’s time for other parties to follow. Given the negative impact of tuition fees, it would be worth it.”

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