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The SNP government in Scotland is under increasing pressure to reveal the actual funding shortfall for Scottish Universities and how they plan to meet it following decision in England to allow universities to charge upto £9,000

Universities had earlier estimated the funding gap to be around £202 Million, but Alex Salmond and his ministers claimed the deficit would be only £93 Million.

The SNP's pledge not to charge tutition fees from Scottish students meant they had to increase the fees for students from other parts of the UK. However, they are not allowed to charge tuition fees to Non UK EU students.

But seems like filling up the coffers by charging other UK students more have not come through as 5,000 fewer English students have applied for a place in Scottish universities.

This equates to a 15% fall in English student applications and official figures reveal that Welsh applicant numbers have dropped by 10% as well.

Mike Russell, the Scottish Education Secretary had earlier announced that Scotland's Universities would be allowed to charge upto £8,000 per academic year to students from elsewhere in the UK.

He was hoping that the additional fees paid by English, Welsh and Northern Ireland students would help meet the funding shortfall in Scottish universities.  Instead, Scottish Universities might now have to lure English students by offering lower fees.

The opposition parties as well as the education stakeholders are challenging Alex Salmond's government to reveal how they would tackle this funding shortfall.

“It’s been obvious for some time that the funding gap would be far in excess of what the Scottish government was admitting, "Liz Smith, Scottish Tory Education spokesperson. "“The SNP has made a very firm commitment to a free university education for Scots, but they are not coming up with the money to fulfil it. Mr Russell needs to apologise that the arithmetic basis of his higher education policy is deeply flawed.”

According to an expert group appointed by Mr. Russell, the funding shortfall for Scottish Universities compared to their English counterparts would be around £267 Million by 2014/15 which is around three times more than the Scottish government expectations.

But this figure is based on assumptions that most English Universities would only charge £7,5000 per anum and that tuition fees would not increase annually.