On Friday, the Scottish Agricultural College (SAC) set the level of tuition fee it proposes to charge new undergraduate full-time students from England, Wales and Northern Ireland. From 2012 students from the rest of the UK will have to cough up £6,750 per year, or £27,000 for a four year Honours degree. image expired

The decision on fees was reached by an SAC finance committee on Thursday 22nd. While Scottish students will continue to be supported by the Scottish government, SAC said it intends to offer additional support to students from elsewhere in the UK through bursaries and scholarships. The bursaries would help cover travel, tuition fees and living costs for RUK students.

SAC Chief Executive and Principal, Professor Bill McKelvey said, “We don’t want to disadvantage non-Scottish students and have therefore set a fee which is comparable with similar UK institutions offering a full degree programme. SAC believes its Rest of UK tuition fee level will place students living in England in the same position as they would be had they opted to attend an HEI there. In fact those students who come to SAC with the qualifications that permit entry direct to second year will benefit.

“We do, however, appreciate that Rest of UK students are facing a big change so from 2012/13 we will be making additional funding available for bursaries and scholarships to assist with fees and travel and living costs.”