RGU students prefer Scotland staying within the United Kingdom

listen to ‘RGU Scottish Independence Opinion Polls’ on Audioboo

Source: RGU:Union

Most Robert Gordon University students, who took part in two opinion polls last night during the Scottish independence debate at the Riverside East campus in Aberdeen, would prefer Scotland to stay within the United Kingdom, according to the results published today on the RGU:Union Facebook page.

An opinion poll was taken before the debate commenced and another opinion poll took place after the debate. The poll was based on the wording of the actual question that is expected to appear on the ballot papers of the actual referendum on Scottish independence: "Should Scotland be an independent country?"

Out of the 162 voters in the first poll, 78 of them said 'No'. Only 36 people said 'Yes' whilst 48 didn't know what way to go. In percentage figures, just under 50% of voters preferred Scotland to remain within the UK whilst only just over 22% would back Scotland becoming independent. Just under 30% of voters were unsure about which way to go.

In the aftermath of the debate, 167 people took the second poll. Both sides of the debate gained voters whilst less people were undecided about what stance they preferred to take. 'Yes' went up to 48 but 'No' went up to 98, whilst 21 didn't know. As far as percentages are concerned, the 'Yes' side gained approximately 6% from the last poll. But the 'No' side gained an increase of approximately 10% from the poll before the debate. The number of people who still weren't sure was more than halved, with a figure of approximately 12.5%.

Now a few factors have to come into play here. The student population of Robert Gordon University is over 16,000 (2012/2013) so we are talking a small minority of people who took part in last night's debate. Also, the polls taken last night were not secret ballots. They were simply opinion polls just to measure what the opinion was like amongst those who attended the event.

And the other thing to take into account overall is that the real vote has still not taken place. Many things have already happened during the debate on Scotland's constitutional future and there is no doubt that there will be more twists and turns prior to September 18th 2014. Yet, it is nevertheless interesting to see what people think about this dominant political issue that keeps coming up in news bulletin after news bulletin.