London - The UK government was last night preparing itself for a sustained and damaging attack from British student leaders and opposition parties as it became clear that student grants will return and tuition fees will be abolished in Scotland while the rest of the UK is excluded.
Both Labour and Liberal Democrat members of the Scottish executive yesterday hinted they were prepared to use the findings of Mr Andrew Cubie's independent report into student finance in Scotland as a blueprint for negotiations that look certain to save the coalition.
Under the Cubie proposals, tuition fees would be replaced by a Scottish graduate endowment scheme, whereby the Scottish executive paid the fees and students would not be required to pay them back until they were earning at least £25,000 a year.