PRIME Minister Andy Burnham was urged today to stick to his promise to scrap eye-watering university tuition fees after figures revealed a staggering 879 per cent rise since they were introduced in 1998.

Fees of £1,000 were introduced for UK students at English universities by then prime minister Tony Blair, but now stand at £9,790-a-year and have been central to spiralling levels student debt, with recent House of Commons Library analysis suggesting those graduating from English universities in 2025 carried an average debt of £53,010.

The same research found that should they have taken out their full student loan entitlements, that debt could be as high as £70,000, or £81,000 for students in London.

Pointing to an average debt of £17,990 for Scottish students leaving Scottish universities in 2025, and reminding Mr Burnham of his pledge in the 2015 Labour leadership to “lift the millstone of debt” from students and replace fees with a graduate tax, SNP Westminster economy spokeswoman Kirsty Blackman said: 

“There is simply no excuse for the fact that tuition fees have risen by a staggering 879 per cent since the Labour Party introduced them — and it means that Andy Burnham is breaking his promises to millions of students and young people.”

Vowing “university tuition fees in Scotland will always be free under the SNP,” Ms Blackman added: “Andy Burnham must come clean and admit whether his promise to scrap fees is another broken promise on the Westminster bonfire.”

A Department for Education spokesperson said: “We know the student loan system we inherited is broken and unfair, and some graduates feel the weight of this more strongly.

“We will continue to look for ways to make the system fairer for students, graduates and taxpayers in a financially sustainable way.”

As Ms Blackman extolled the virtues of Scotland’s tuition fee-free regime however, Edinburgh University principal Professor Sir Peter Mathieson — currently in dispute with the UCU over £130m cuts plans — warned Scotland’s “current funding model is unsustainable.”

Writing in the Herald newspaper after the Future Framework identified a £200 million funding gap across Scottish higher education, he argued: “Funding of the education of home students and of research is inadequate and deteriorating, with international student fees cross-subsidising both.

“This leaves institutions in a fragile position, with little resilience to withstand further shocks.”