The Economist on Riddell's remark on fees and CREID's research on student debts

Description

Following an interview with Professor Sheila Riddell, The Economist published an article (3rd Oct 2015) on the debts of Scottish students, and the debates on the benefits of the abolition of fees to widening access to higher education.

Apart from the comments of relevant policy makers, the research on the net effect of the SNP's no-fee, low-grant policy by Lucy Hunter Blackburn was featured to underline how fees were transferred from poor students to their richer classmates.  Sarah Minty's recent research on students' attitude to avoid debts was also noted to support Lucy's comment.  The article also underlined Sheila Riddell's comment on the possibility for the SNP to amend the current free fee policy under the pressure of further spending cuts.