Part-time students are to receive extra financial help to attend university or further education colleges in Scotland.
Full-time students currently pay a fee of about £2,000 after they graduate, although that is due to be abolished.
Part-time students, however, have to pay fees of between £500 and £2,000 up front each year.
Education Secretary Fiona Hyslop has outlined a grant of up to £500 a year if students earn less than £18,000, on top of £200 a year already available.
More than 20,000 students are expected to benefit from the scheme.
"The announcement today is the next step towards moving away from loans to grants"
It covers students studying for degrees at university or taking Higher National Diplomas or Certificates at further education colleges.
Most part-time students are classed as "mature" with responsibilities including mortgages and children.
Many work full-time but are on low incomes and often have childcare and transport costs.
Ms Hyslop outlined the financial help while in Paisley to mark the merger of the town's university and Bell College. It will become the University of the West of Scotland.
She said: "We have already stated our intention, subject to parliamentary approval, to abolish the graduate endowment fee.
"The announcement today is the next step towards moving away from loans to grants and will be a major boost for part-time students where fee costs can be a particular barrier."
The £500 grant will be available from next autumn.
Ministers are also bringing in a national hardship fund worth £1m to replace the £500 loans for extra student expenses, which they plans to abolish.
Liberal Democrat education spokesman Jeremy Purvis MSP said: "These moves will be welcomed by part time students, but given colleges are facing a real terms cut next year in their funding and the SNP has broken its promise to write off student debt, students across Scotland are justified in believing that they have been betrayed by the SNP."
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