'Real pain' of cuts to universities and colleges
Universities and colleges in Scotland have learned just how big a share of the pain of public spending cuts they will have to endure.
Abertay students at the university library.
- By Grant Smith, education reporter
- Published in the Courier : 21.12.10
- Published online : 21.12.10 @ 01.26pm
Reductions in staffing and courses are on the way as institutions seek to cope with their incomes being slashed by £140 million for 2011-12.
Dundee College, which will have to find savings of £4 million, was one of the first to announce it will seek voluntary redundancies.
Principal Christina Potter said the sector was to take a "disproportionate share" of the cuts and she admitted the college will have to discard some courses.
Also aggrieved was Professor Bernard King, principal of Abertay University and convener of higher education umbrella body Universities Scotland.
He said, "Cuts of 10.9% to our teaching grants will inflict real pain on universities who will work to honour their commitment to students but who will find it enormously difficult to manage this year's harsh settlement.
"University funding is not a problem for the future. It is a very real and very big problem right now.
"This settlement will force universities to make a range of difficult decisions in 2011-12.
"Put simply, this is not sustainable without real damage to universities."
The Scottish Funding Council, which allocates grants to higher and further education, has announced a near £1.5 billion budget for the academic year, which starts in August.
This comprises £956 million for universities and £528 million for colleges — more than 8% down on this year.
The teaching budget for universities has been cut by 10.9%, with funding for research down by 0.6%.
Colleges will have to cope with a 10.4% drop in teaching grant and student support is increased by a below-inflation 0.3%. Capital funding for building and maintenance programmes for both sectors falls by 38%.
Student numbers
SFC chief executive Mark Batho, said, "Students will have the same opportunity to apply for a place at college or university for 2011-12 because existing student numbers are being maintained."
The funding council has also introduced a "spend to save" fund focusing on projects that produce long-term savings, such as greater collaborative working between institutions or even mergers.
A Scottish Government spokesman said, "In publishing next year's draft budget tough decisions had to be taken but, despite this, we welcome the college and university sector's commitment to maintain the number of core university and college places for the coming academic year."
Des McNulty, Labour education spokesman, said, "Our universities are facing an almost £75 million cut in their main teaching grant this year and capital has been halved.
"The universities have made it clear that this position is not sustainable and yet the SNP are in denial.
"There is no point enrolling students in university places if they cannot be well taught or if they are forced to drop out because of financial problems."
'Deeply worrying'
Tory education spokeswoman Liz Smith said, "This situation is deeply worrying and has been exacerbated by the Scottish Government's determination to kick the issue into the long grass.
"We would introduce a graduate contribution which would be paid back once a given threshold in earnings had been reached."
Liberal Democrat education spokeswoman Margaret Smith complained the government had chosen to cut higher education to a greater extent than other areas.
Although the headline budget for university research is little changed, there are considerable variations between institutions because funding has been re-allocated to programmes with the highest ratings in the last research excellence survey.
That means Dundee and St Andrews universities will see their research grants down by a fraction of 1%, while Abertay University suffers a near 7% drop.
However, Abertay gets a near 70% increase in funding for its work to widen access for disadvantaged students, while Dundee and St Andrews both lose more than a quarter of their grants.
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