Cubie petition arrives via net

Scottish students are taking democracy into the digital age though a web-based petition to the Scottish Parliament demanding the full implementation of the Cubie report, Olga Wojtas reports.

One of the radical innovations in the Scottish parliamentary process is the "e-petitioner" system developed by Napier University's international tele-democracy centre, allowing signatures to be gathered through the internet.

Napier students' association, co-sponsored by the National Union of Students Scotland, has launched the petition with the ambitious target of at least 50,000 signatures by the end of June. Once the petition is closed, it will be sent to the parliament's petitions committee.

Napier's student president, Hubert Grealish, said: "The beauty of this online facility is that it can bring democracy to people's desktops and let them play their part in the debate, rather than having to root out a paper-based petition."

He condemned the Scottish Executive's latest proposals in the wake of Cubie as a "re-administration" of existing funds rather than following the spirit of the independent inquiry's findings on student hardship.

Mr Grealish urged all those who had submitted evidence to Cubie, and attended its public meetings, to sign the petition.

He said: "We are also contacting every students' association in Britain. We all know the implications of the Cubie report could have a knock-on effect for the rest of the UK."

Robin Harper, Green Party MSP and recently elected rector of Edinburgh University, this week signed the e-petition, leaving the message: "The struggle for Cubie in full is not yet over."