Part-time students would be exempt from Scottish Conservative plans

Scottish Conservative plans to make university graduates pay back £1,500 for every year of their degree once they are earning more than £20,000 a year would not apply to those studying part-time, the party's manifesto has revealed.

The policy, which would end Scotland's free university tuition would not include part-time, postgraduate, disabled and low-income students, the manifesto states.

There is also a pledge to support the Open University by protecting the part-time fee grant. 

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Susan Stewart, Director of The Open University in Scotland, said: "Part-time study provides a crucial route to university for thousands of students throughout Scotland. The Part-Time Fee Grant helps lower-income students juggle other commitments like work and family with their study, helping thousands realise their potential while making an immediate economic impact. 

"If we are serious about widening access to higher education, we need to recognise the vital role part-time, flexible study plays. And we cannot make eighteen a 'make or break' age for lifelong educational decisions."

Almost two-thirds of OU students in Scotland use Part-Time Fee Grants, with 38 per cent of students from the most deprived 40 of Scottish communities according to the SIMD model.

Free university tuition is a very popular policy in Scotland, according to a recent Ipsos-Mori poll for the BBC, with Scotland's other main parties remaining committed to it. 

The SNP's John Swinney said the Conservatives' plan was unpopular and regressive.

"Those stealth taxes on some of the poorest people in Scotland completely undermine the Tories' claims to be a tax-cutting party," he said.