User fees for land grant universities - the Scottish experience

In 1987 the U.K. government required the organizations through which it pro vided an extension service to adopt a cost-recovery system. Generally, this requirement applied to all advice with the exception of advice given in th e areas of welfare, pollution control, and farm diversification. The Scotti sh Agricultural College (SAC), which provided advice in Scotland at this ti me, adopted a strategy aimed at maintaining its extension base in Scotland. The strategy was based on reforming the Extension Service into an Advisory Service. Whereas clients had received information from the Extension Servi ce free of charge, fees were charged for most services offered by the Advis ory Service (there were a few exceptions for which the government paid). In order to develop the service, the advisers started servicing contracts out side Scotland, firstly in the U.K. and, more recently, across the world. As the industry has changed, so the service offered has changed, with increas ing reliance being put upon specialist advisers who provide advice not to t he farm staff but to company technologists.