§ Sir Russell Johnston (Inverness, Nairn and Lochaber)I beg leave to present a petition on behalf of, and collected by, the Inverness college students association. The petition demonstrates widespread concern in my constituency and in other parts of the Highlands about the introduction of student loans. The loans are felt to create a significant disincentive to groups whom we should be encouraging to enter higher education. There is also an awareness, not apparently shared by the Government, of the particular problem of four-year courses in Scotland:
Wherefore your Petitioners pray that your honourable House do reject the proposals for the payment by students of tuition fees or student loans; furthermore, that access to further and higher education be improved and not be inhibited by inability to pay.And your Petitioners, as in duty bound, will ever pray".
§ To lie upon the Table.