Christina spoke in the debate on 12 March 2009:

“People should be under no illusion about student loans. They burden today’s students with massive debts that restrict their life chances, and remove from the economy money that would otherwise have helped to drive it. Student loans make the recession worse. Anyone would have thought that politicians would be eager to change that system for something far more sensible, but they would be wrong—only one party has put forward a proposal to change it. The SNP believes in access to education based on the ability to learn, not the ability to pay, and we will continue to drive Scottish education in that direction. That is why, when part-time students—who are often the least well-off—had their loans turned into grants, the SNP Government delivered the first part of its programme to provide grants, not loans, thereby improving the lives of 20,000 students.”

Read the full text of Christina’s speech at .=”http://www.scottish.parliament.uk/business/officialReports/meetingsParliament/or-09/sor0312-02.htm#Col15717″>