There is a widespread myth among students that the rise in tuition fees south of the border won’t affect higher education in Scotland. It absolutely will.

If the UK government lifts the cap on tuition fees, with universities in England allowed to charge fees of £7000 or more per year for their courses this will create a huge funding gap in the higher education system. Scottish institutions are in desperate need of increased funding and will struggle to compete against their wealthier counterparts elsewhere in the UK.

An increase in tuition fees will also see the numbers of Scottish students at Edinburgh fall dramatically. When fees were first introduced, Edinburgh witnessed a surge in applications – English students currently pay £1820 per year, as opposed to the £3325 they would pay in England. If fees are raised to £7000 a year, the brightest and best English students will all apply to Edinburgh to save £5000 a year. Edinburgh is already one of the most competitive universities in the UK with 15 applicants for each place. If tuition fees are increased young people living in Scotland will be competing with thousands more students for a place at university.

It is dangerous and complacent to view the Browne Review as an irrelevant aside to the Scottish university system. These proposals represent a fundamental challenge to education as we know it: We’re facing 80% cuts to teaching budgets, the withdrawing of public investment from all but science courses and the doubling of student debt. Scottish universities will charge international students more money on top of their already over-inflated fees to fill the funding gap and teaching quality will suffer because lecturers will be focussed on winning lucrative research grants rather than providing world-class teaching. With Edinburgh University once again rated the worst university in the UK for assessment and feedback in this year’s National Student Survey, a greater focus on research at the detriment to teaching could be disastrous for current students.

On top of this, financial support for students in Scotland is already the worst in the UK. Studies have shown that students are working over 20 hours a week on top of their degree and 36% of students have considered dropping out due to financial worries. That’s not good enough. The Scottish Government is talking about an impending crisis in higher education funding. For us, there’s nothing ‘impending’ about it. More students are entering into commercial debt, working longer hours and dropping out of their studies. We must be under no illusion; education in Scotland at the moment is not free and not fair.

It is against this background that the Scottish Government is searching for a so-called ‘Scottish solution’ to university funding. The Browne review not only directly affects us here, but it also sets a dangerous precedent for which funding model we can expect university vice-chancellors in Scotland to favour. Fees in England mean an increased likelihood of fees in Scotland.

In England, Browne’s proposals will make university a privilege for the few who can afford it, and will price out the majority. The lifting of the cap will mean that universities like Oxford and Cambridge will be able to charge whatever they like, and the universities with less good reputations and results, less. This will create a two tier system, with students’ attendance at elite institutions based on the size of their bank balance, not on their academic potential.

In Scotland, the debate is entering a crucial stage. The Holyrood elections are in May and we must make higher education funding a decisive issue. We must tell the Government that education should be accessible to all, regardless of your bank balance. We must let the political parties know that students won’t stand for higher fees which will deter students from poorer backgrounds from going to university.

Our reaction to the Browne review is crucial here and we have two options: Cast the proposals aside as irrelevant and risk politicians not understanding the strength of feeling students have against fees or take a stand now and send a clear message to political parties ahead of the election that education is a goal worth fighting for.