25.10.2007
Views on the general principles of the Graduate Endowment Abolition (Scotland) Bill are being sought in a call for written evidence issued today by the Scottish Parliament’s Education, Lifelong Learning and Culture Committee.
The bill seeks to abolish graduate endowment for all students who graduated from 1 April 2007 onwards.
The graduate endowment was introduced by the Education (Graduate Endowment and Student Support) (Scotland) Act 2001, which came into effect on 3 May 2001.
It came into force for the academic year 2001-2002 and is payable by Scottish domiciled and EU students who started their first full-time degree course at a Scottish institution on or after 1 August 2001.
The amount to be paid is fixed at the time a student begins his or her degree course and is currently set at £2,289. The graduate endowment is payable in the April after students have completed their course.
The committee would welcome views from interested parties on the general principles of the bill. In addition, it would be helpful to the committee if interested parties could also consider the following questions:
- How helpful do you find the policy memorandum (pdf) and financial memorandum (pdf) accompanying the bill?
- Do you have any comments on the consultation the Scottish Government carried out prior to the introduction of the bill?
BACKGROUND NOTES
The Bill was introduced in the Parliament on 22 October 2007 and referred to the Education, Lifelong Learning and Culture Committee by the Parliamentary Bureau on 23 October 2007.
At stage 1 a subject committee examines the general principles of a bill and reports to the Parliament. As part of this process, a committee usually takes written and oral evidence from interested parties.