The principal of Aberdeen University has said the current funding situation is ‘unsustainable’ as a leading academic said ‘consideration’ should be given to introducing tuition fees.

In the rest of the UK students often are required to pay around £9,000 a year for university education, but in Scotland it is free for Scottish students.

The new SNP government under Alex Salmond scrapped the fees in 2008 where he famously had a stone inscribed with ”the rocks will melt with the sun before I allow tuition fees to be imposed on Scotland’s students’.

But now the Daily Mail reports that senior university bosses in Scotland are now calling for a possible rethink amid declining revenues.

Professor Sir Peter Mathieson, head of Edinburgh University, said charging students from wealthier backgrounds or who earn more than the average salary for their degrees could also be investigated by the Scottish Government.

And Professor George Boyne, principal at Aberdeen University, said that the current ‘status quo is unsustainable’.

He said: “I agree that alternatives to the inadequate and declining public funding for Scottish universities are worthy of careful review to ensure sufficient and fair funding.

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