The Public Meeting was chaired by Rowena Arshad, with an initial presentation by Alan Lister, from the Secretariat. The main points raised by those attending included the following. A second year FE student pointed out that people on benefit who move onto full-time courses have their benefits cut by the value of the maximum loan available. Students are therefore forced to pay disproportionate regard to the length of courses and are influenced by financial factors rather than the best or most suitable choice. Another member of the audience drew attention to the fact that financial support was not available for postgraduates who intended to further their studies through distance learning.
Loans are currently only available for class-room based study.
This sometimes meant that they got into financial difficulties and the student loans company was not always as sympathetic and flexible as it should be in these circumstances. It would be much better to do away with loans and inject the resources required into tertiary education through general taxation. A member of the audience thought that the financial strains of funding tertiary education often lead to the breakdown of family relationships and it was important that such circumstances should not preclude young people from pursuing their objectives in higher and further education. Another member of the audience agreed with the suggestion about using general taxation to provide the resources for higher and further education. If individual families were asked to meet the bulk of the costs, then because of the geographical position of the Western Isles and other remote areas, it could well lead to de-population.