Abertay University principal warns of 'lethal' cuts to university funding
The principal of Abertay University in Dundee has claimed funding cuts contained in the Scottish budget could prove "lethal" for higher education.
Professor Bernard King.
- By David Clegg, political reporter
- Published in the Courier : 27.11.10
- Published online : 27.11.10 @ 08.00am
Professor Bernard King, one of Scotland's most senior academics, used an address to new graduates to say the financial pressures being imposed were "not sustainable."
Scottish Labour said the comments demonstrated the SNP government is failing in its approach to university funding.
Finance secretary John Swinney slashed university funding last week — with whoever forms a government in May after the Holyrood election expected to make deeper cuts.
The Scottish Funding Council's total budget is to fall from about £1.79 billion to about £1.57 billion. Within that, the block grant distributed to universities will fall from £989 million to £926 million.
Professor King said the first year of cuts would be "extremely difficult."
He added, "If it were to be repeated in the following years, the effect on the scale, scope and impact of Scottish higher education could be lethal. This is not a sustainable situation.
"We have to ask difficult questions about how universities in Scotland will be funded sustainably in the long term."
Education secretary Michael Russell has said a green paper on the future of funding Scottish universities will be published next month.
At the Abertay University graduation ceremony, Professor King went on, "We have to have a solution at the other end of this exercise.
"To get to a solution we need the green paper to cut straight to the heart of the issue and ask these difficult questions.
"To get to a solution we also need everyone involved to be prepared to answer them."
Protests
Professor King's comments come against a background of widespread protests over proposed cuts to higher education and increases in tuition fees.
This week around 500 students in Glasgow attempted to occupy the Royal College Building at Strathclyde University to demonstrate against the cuts.
Students in Glasgow and Edinburgh also joined in the UK-wide protests against the coalition government's plans to increase tuition fees in England and Wales.
But Professor King stressed that Scotland should not follow England's solution to the funding crisis.
"Universities in England are facing the very real prospect that the UK Government will no longer provide any funding for teaching certain subjects at university," he said.
"Instead, the cost of teaching these subjects will be transferred — wholesale — to graduates. This is not a situation that universities in Scotland want to see.
"It is a regressive approach to higher education and would result in a situation whereby the UK Government contributes less to higher education than any other advanced nation in the western hemisphere.
"Scotland's universities agree with the view that the state in Scotland should retain prime responsibility for funding higher education, but the recent budget cut throws into doubt how long the state can continue to sustain internationally competitive universities."
Labour's education spokesman Des McNulty said Professor King's comments showed the government should have revealed longer-term spending plans than the one-year draft budget published last week.
"Professor King recognises urgent action is required but the SNP are trying to delay any decisions until after elections in May.
"Scottish universities are unable to plan properly for the future because the SNP Government has brought forward no proposals for funding arrangements and universities have already been told to expect even more savage cuts in the next financial year."
However, a spokesman for the Scottish Government last night insisted it was continuing to invest in higher education.
"The long-term challenges and pressures on university funding are clear," he said.
"We are willing to consider all sensible ideas, no matter how radical or innovative, except for one-tuition fees."
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