(c) GETTY
I think it is but I’m not sure by how much anymore. Let’s see if the answer to this parliamentary question, on Monday 26th March, helps?
So, that would be around £30 000 saved for a general/ordinary degree and £40 000 for an honours degree. So, we pay diddly? Is that infinitely less than any amount? Maths pedant approaching!
Ah, but you’ll have to pay an extra £20 per year in income tax in Scotland!
Whit! That’s a damn disgrace. I’m off to make my name (Robinson*) in London! I don’t care if we all get stabbed!
https://www.parliament.scot/S5ChamberOffice/WA20190325.pdf
- Too many r’s to be rrroalled in Rrroberrrtson.
Talking-up Scotland 
This affects Scottish Universities, graduates etc so hopefully am not wandering off-topic! See the record levels of R+D spending in Scotland reported on news.gov.scot site today – link and snippets below:
https://news.gov.scot/news/research-and-development-spending-up
Research and development spending up
Scottish funding at record high levels.
Record amounts are being spent on research and development, according to the latest Scottish Government statistics.
Gross Expenditure on Research and Development (GERD) in 2017, one of the key measures of innovation, saw around £2.5 billion spent, predominately by businesses and higher education institutions.
The latest statistics show:
• GERD was £2,529 million in 2017 – up 8.3% in real terms between 2016 and 2017, compared to a 2.8% increase for the UK. It represents 7.3% of the UK total and is at its highest level in Scotland
• Business Enterprise Research and Development (BERD) spend was £1,247 million in 2017 – up 13.9% in real terms between 2016 and 2017, compared to a 2.9% increase for the UK
• Higher Education Research and Development (HERD) spend was £1,072 million in 2017 – up 2.9% in real terms between 2016 and 2017, compared to a 3.7% increase for the UK
Innovation Minister Ivan McKee said: “These record figures are excellent news for our economy. Scotland’s Gross Expenditure on Research and Development (GERD) is growing at almost triple the rate of the UK and our Business Enterprise Research and Development (BERD) is growing at over four times the rate of the UK, with spend at a record high of £1.25 billion in 2017… businesses based in other EU countries accounted for 24% of Scotland’s BERD spend in 2017, up from 17% in 2016, which again highlights the importance of Scotland’s relationship with the EU.”
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John’s favourite ‘Economy Editor’ across at beeb Scotland (Douglas Fraser) has a piece without much obvious spin (well done Douglas – keep it up) regarding Carbon Capture Usage and Storage (CCUS). He explains that ‘usage’ has now found its way into the name of the process. He mentions a new piece of research from Strathclyde Uni which was commissioned by The Crown Estates (‘..under new management..’ as he puts it – That phraseology, perhaps, doesn’t quite convey the titanic battle the SNP (and Greens – and I believe, Lord Smith himself) had to undertake against the Better Together cohorts to get the Crown Estates included within the remit of the Scottish Parliament and Govt. during the Smith Commission process post Indyref – doesn’t it all seem so long ago now?). Link and snippets below:
https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-scotland-scotland-business-47717237
And under new management, Crown Estate Scotland has put some Strathclyde University economists to work on the impact that could yet be derived from
developing CCUS. The Crown Estate licences the seabed for such storage, and wants to plan ahead.
Its study was published on Tuesday, with some large numbers in terms of economic impact. The main thrust of a dessicated piece of economic writing is to shift the measure of CCUS from its environmental positives, set against its very high costs, and to account also for its economic impact.
Thus, the Strathclyde Centre for Energy Policy observes that CCUS would allow the UK offshore oil and gas sector to keep pumping from its subsea wells, while offsetting its climate harm by pumping processed carbon gunge into the emptied rock formations.
If it does so, this study is talking about 26,000 directly linked jobs in the on-shore support industry and another 18,000 supply jobs downstream.
It’s further reckoned that this could help process industries de-carbonise to support the “just transition” from carbon emissions which was pledged in the Paris Agreement.
Can anyone imagine the previous management of The Crown Estates undertaking this kind of proactive Team Scotland approach? – Of course we can’t –
The struggle to carry Scotland into a ‘normal’ situation as an Indy nation state can seem hellish long and hard – but – it is important to take opportunities to remind ourselves of the real and vital gains for Scotland that have been achieved by the YES Movement along that long, slow road to ‘normality’.
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