Scotland flirts with move from loans to grants

The minority Scottish National Party government is reviewing its options for fulfilling its 2007 election pledge to scrap university and college student loans:

Plans to start replacing student loans with grants are among three options being considered as part of a shake-up of student support in Scotland. The other proposals include topping-up the loans with grants, or reducing debt only for students on low incomes.

With these new proposals, the Scottish government continues to be subject to heavycriticism for backing away from its earlier promises to "dump the debt" and abolish the "expensive and discredited student loans system with means-tested student grants".