Students studying social work have called on the Scottish Government to provide bursaries in their final years.
A petition filed with the Scottish Parliament has urged ministers to help students in their third and fourth years of study, where they will spend around 200 days on placement.
The situation means, according to the petitioners, students are forced to work unsociable hours on top of a full-time placement, or resort to food banks.
Nursing, midwifery and, in a more recent change, paramedic students are given a £10,000 bursary in their placement-heavy studies, with the social work students calling for around £7,500 – at an estimated cost of £7.4 million.
