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The Scottish National Party and Scottish Conservatives this week failed in an attempt to raise the income threshold for the graduate endowment scheme when they were outvoted in the Scottish Parliament's enterprise and lifelong learning committee.

The SNP argued that only the Cubie committee's proposed ?25,000 earnings threshold would eliminate unfairness in the student support system. But Alasdair Morrison, deputy minister for enterprise and lifelong learning, successfully called for the graduate endowment to be tied to student loan repayments once graduates earned ?10,000.