An angry mum took to the airwaves to challenge Nicola Sturgeon over the dearth of financial support for trainee pilots in Dundee.
Valerie Stewart-Toner called the BBC Radio Scotland phone-in outraged at the lack of student loans available for those studying for a pilot’s degree at Tayside Aviation.
The caller from Moray said her son Craig Stewart-Toner, a pilot and Scottish Conservative activist, faced a lengthy battle with the Student Awards Agency Scotland (SAAS) to get loans to cover the BSc course’s tuition fees.
Those who signed up to the course starting this year have been denied student loans.
She told the Kaye Adams Show: “We fought hard, some of the students now have the student loan, but the ones starting now have been refused the student loan. These are Scottish students not getting a loan to do what they want to do.”
The professional aviation pilot course is run by Middlesex University in England, where students have to pay tuition fees of up to £9,000 a year. Students get their pilot training at Dundee Airport.
Ms Sturgeon said she would “personally look” at the issues raised by the caller. On free tuition, she told Mrs Stewart-Toner: “I benefited from free university tuition and I do not think I have the right to take that away from other Scottish students.”
An SAAS spokeswoman said: “The tuition fee loan was extended to 2015 entrants on an exceptional basis. However, the relevant legislation in Scotland is clear that Scottish domiciled students are not eligible to apply for tuition fee loans to study a course delivered in Scotland by a university from elsewhere in the UK.”