MOVES to close a loophole that allows students from Northern Ireland free university places in Scotland have provoked a backlash.
Under new fees legislation affecting UK residents, students from Northern Ireland had been expected to pay fees of up to £9000 a year to attend Scottish universities.
However, earlier this year it emerged that if those students took up their right to dual citizenship with the Irish Republic they could apply as an EU student and have their fees paid by the Scottish Government.
Last week, the Scottish Government announced its intention to introduce rules that effectively close the loophole, and now politicians from Northern Ireland have attacked the move.
Pat Ramsey, the SDLP's further education spokesman, said the move ran counter to the spirit of the Good Friday Agreement, which grants everyone in Northern Ireland the right to a Republic of Ireland passport.
"We have the situation where a potential student in Derry, who holds an Irish passport and is as Irish as his neighbour just across the border in Donegal, will have to pay up to £9000 annually in tuition fees to attend a Scottish university," he said.
"We must not be finding ways of crippling our young people with mortgage-like debts so early in their career.
"Many students will want to attend a Scottish university because of specialist courses that cannot be studied elsewhere."
Basil McCrea, an Ulster Unionist assembly member, questioned whether the new rules would be legal.
"It is not up to the Scottish Parliament to decide what nationality an individual is – it is up to that individual and protected in EU law," he said.
"It is also a condition of the Good Friday Agreement that someone from Northern Ireland can class themselves as Irish if they so desire.
"I expect this part of the decision to be challenged in the courts also."
While the number of students from Northern Ireland coming to Scotland is relatively small, some universities were concerned about the development because it would mean a drop in fee income.
Dundee University recorded a 20% increase in Northern Ireland students applying with an Irish passport.
There was also the prospect that other people with dual nationality such as Italians living in the UK could also take advantage of the loophole.
In accordance with Scotland's EU treaty obligations, the nationals of another member state must be treated in the same way as students living in Scotland.
Scottish students benefit from free tuition, whereas students elsewhere in the UK do not. This gives an incentive to a student from elsewhere in the UK who can claim dual nationality to apply to Scottish institutions as a non-UK EU national and so obtain free tuition.
However, the number of students with Northern Ireland postcodes who have been accepted to Scottish institutions for 2012/13 is down by 19%, and figures for students with Republic of Ireland postcodes show a drop of 6%.
Under plans for new legislation, from 2013/14 students applying to Scottish universities will have to prove they've lived in their adoptive country in order to qualify as an EU student.
The prospective student will have to prove residency in the EU country of at least three months in order to be admitted as an EU national.
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