By Grant Smith, education reporter

DUNDEE UNIVERSITY does not only need more money, it needs smarter students too.

That is one of the conclusions of the sustainability review group whose recommendations on savings and job cuts was accepted by the university’s governing body this week.

The group’s report was released yesterday, along with statements to staff and students strongly defending the proposals—which have generated considerable opposition.

One of the things the review group decided was that the average tariff scores of undergraduates was too low.

Tariffs are a points system, run by UK universities admissions body UCAS, which allow comparisons between different types of qualification. In Scotland an A in an Advanced Higher is worth 120 points, while an A in a Higher is only worth 72 points.

The group looked at the tariffs of undergraduates coming to Dundee and compared them with the rest of the UK. Their report stated, “In most disciplines we are not attracting the most highly-qualified cohort (or group) of students.”

In 2005, new students had an average tariff of 378. That was well up on the score of 299 only three years before but the review group believed a further increase was needed.

They were asked to devise a plan to increase income, make savings and turn a budget deficit into a surplus over four years.

They reckoned that adding another 200 fee-paying postgraduates, many of them from abroad, would bring in an extra £1 million. That would only go part of the way to sorting out the financial problems, though.

Income per member of academic staff was £14,000 less than the Scottish average and research income has been more or less static at about £40 million per year. Meanwhile, staff costs have risen from £86 million in 2002/03 to a predicted £116 million for 2007/08.

The group was worried that while the number of students coming to Dundee was satisfactory, some courses were failing to attract enough people.

The result was that the university was “failing to generate a surplus sufficient to allow for necessary strategic development and investment required for maintain and update infrastructure.”

Based on the annual turnover of £175 million, a surplus of £5.25 million a year was needed compared to a projected deficit of £1.6 million for this year.

Each of the four colleges will be expected to make savings—£400,000 from life sciences, £600,000 from medicine, dentistry and nursing, £500,000 from art and design, architecture, engineering and physical sciences and £600,000 from arts and social sciences.

Three specific areas earmarked for cuts are modern languages, town and regional planning and community education.

They also recommended making savings of £100,000 by 2008/09 in continuing education, despite noting that the university had a “long and impressive record” of giving members of the public the chance to study a wide range of courses—with almost 4000 people enrolled this year.

A meeting between management and the three unions representing staff will be held on Friday to discuss the severance scheme.