Born in 1946 and brought up in Cupar, Fife, I was educated at the local school - 
Banff & Buchan MSP Stewart Stevenson today hailed the formal abolition of the Graduate Endowment introduced in 2001 under the Labour/Lib Dem coalition. From today 50,000 students will benefit from no longer having to pay the £2,289 fee. This key manifesto pledge for the SNP Government was one that was recently passed in parliament through support from the SNP, Liberal Democrats, Greens, independent MSP Margo MacDonald, and one Labour rebel, Elaine Smith. All other Labour and Conservative MSP ‘s voted against its abolition.
Speaking today Mr Stevenson said:
"The scrapping of the Graduate Endowment is one that will be rightly welcomed not only by students but all sections of society in Scotland who believe in making Higher Education more accessible to Scotland’s youth and who have found an increasing debt burden in recent years.
"Recent figures show that the average student debt has doubled from £2863 in 1999 to £5808 in 2007, a disgraceful legacy of the last Labour led Executive. The treatment of students by Labour both supporting the introducing of the Graduate Endowment and subsequently opposing its abolitions is a fact that will not be lost on the student population.
"We know that the fear of debt is a real deterrent to many young people going to university and the scrapping of the Graduate Endowment will act to make academic study a more viable option for more young people in Banff and Buchan.
"It is of fundamental importance that we address the skills gap in many industries and by making Higher Education more attractive we can work towards achieving this. By reducing the financial burden on students we can ensure that the youth of Banff and Buchan are given every opportunity to attain the skills and qualifications needed to develop long and fruitful careers."
Karen Adam is now the MSP for Banffshire and Buchan Coast
