Awards chief puts jon on the line

KEN MACRAE, chief executive of the Student Awards Agency for Scotland, this week told the House of Commons select committee on Scottish affairs that he would consider resigning if last year's grants fiasco, which led to serious delays in awards for 17,500 students was repeated. MPs expressed doubt that the agency would be able to cope any better with the projected new student funding system. Mr MacRae said he did not expect the problems to be repeated. He said that in 1997 difficulties with a new computer system had been compounded by staff shortages and late applications.