When I was at Uni there were no fees, and even people whose parents had a good income got a minimum grant. At that time (early to mid 1980s) I received the minimum of £410 per year grant, plus travel expenses.

By the time my brother was a student (late 80s early 90s) the minimum grant was abolished, but tuition fees were still free.

In Scotland all Scottish (and other EU students outwith the UK) currently get their tuition fees paid by the Scottish Government for a first undergrad degree.

For English students the u/g fees tend to be much cheaper in Scotland than in England. E.g. you would pay around £1820 p.a. instead of £3250 p.a.

The charging of fees came in after the huge explosion in numbers attending HEI. In my day only 10% of school pupils went on to University (and that in itself was double the 5% that was normal in the 1960s)

Now the governments seems to think that 50% of people need to go to University, and they cannot afford to pay for it - hence the fees and lack of financial support for students.