University students in England, Wales and Northern Ireland are being treated like "second class citizens" compared with their peers in Scotland, according to a Conservative MP.

Philip Hammond said the fact that Scottish students attending universities in Scotland were exempt from paying tuition fees, while their counterparts in the other three countries were not, was an "absurd situation" which was the result of devolution.

Raising the issue in a short Commons debate, he said: "A student from Birmingham or London, whose parents have worked here in the UK all their lives, paying taxes to the UK Treasury, would pay fees if their offspring sought to study at Edinburgh University, while a Scot would pay no upfront fees.

"It's a grotesque, absurd affront to common sense that those who work and pay taxes here should find themselves reduced to the status of second class citizens."

'Discrimination'

Students from other countries in the EU were able to study in Scotland without paying the same fees, the MP for Runnymede and Weybridge said.

"The discrimination I'm addressing in this debate is a discrimination based on country of origin.

"A Scottish student studying in Scotland will pay no upfront tuition fees but will be expected to pay a contingent £2,000 tuition tax.

"An English, Welsh or Ulster student studying in Scotland will pay £4,100 in upfront tuition fees. It is quite obvious that decisions on where to study will be taken, at least in part, on financial grounds and not for academic decisions alone.

"I think it is extremely bad for the UK. It is perhaps the first test of devolution."

'Not unreasonable'

Junior Education Minister Malcolm Wicks said if the Tories were to accept the logic of a Scottish Parliament they needed to recognise that inevitably devolution could lead to "diversity and differentiation".

On average, those who gained a degree could expect to fare better in the workplace than those who did not, he said.

"It is not unreasonable that we are asking that group to make a contribution to their costs," said Mr Wicks.

He said students from low income backgrounds did not have to pay the tuition fee.

He added that students from the England, Wales and Northern Ireland could study in any other country in the EU - except Scotland - and be treated in the same way as a resident of that country.

"Hundreds of millions of pounds are coming into this system. £710m by 2001-2 will come from income from tuition fees and loan payments," he said.

"Are we really saying that we should now find other resources of hundreds of millions of pounds to move towards the Scottish system?"