Higher education must be spared from the coming public sector spending cuts, the principal of Abertay University said yesterday.
Professor Bernard King also attacked politicians who claim there are too many graduates, saying the workforce needed more, not less, investment in degree-level skills.
Speaking at the university’s graduation ceremony in Dundee, he said those who called for funds to be diverted away from higher education and into apprenticeships were “short-sighted, deceiving and luddite.”
His comments came in the wake of a warning from Scotland’s chief economist Dr Andrew Goudie that public spending may not reach the level of 2009/10 again until 2026.
The UCU union, which represents academics, has also claimed that as many as 23,000 posts could be lost at UK universities in the coming years, impacting on the quality of teaching and the time staff can spend with students.
Scotland’s universities are reckoned to be worth £5.8 billion a year-more than the Scottish tourism industry and for every pound they take in taxpayers’ money they generate another pound from other sources.
Professor King warned that cutting investment in the sector risked seriously damaging a key component of the economy.
He told students, staff and guests at the Caird Hall ceremony, “I am sure that we are all aware of the new coalition government’s massive cuts in public expenditure, possibly up to 40% over the next few years-universities included.Public resources”Some of you might also have heard claims from politicians and commentators that there are too many graduates and that we should instead be concentrating on investing scarce public resources in apprenticeships for sub-degree-level trades and craft skills.”
But such skills, while useful, would never allow the UK to compete with low-wage economies such as China and India, or create the kind of high-value industries the country needed.
“University education is now a necessity expensive but absolutely essential for a nation wishing to survive and prosper in the modern world,” he said.
He noted that leading business organisation the CBI had recently warned of a deficit in graduates entering the technology, manufacturing, science and engineering professions.
Some of the UK’s biggest companies, including Shell, Centrica and GlaxoSmithKline, had also urged ministers to protect universities from severe cuts and European countries, including France and Germany, had even raised investment in their universities.
“We shall have to wait until spending plans are announced in the autumn to see whether the government has heard these calls,” Professor King said.Knowledge economyHe told the students the courses they had just completed, many of which have involved work placements outside the university, were designed to equip them for the demands of the knowledge economy.
“And the world certainly needs the impact of people like you, now more than ever as the planet’s major economies Britain’s included struggle to recover from the financial storms of the past two years.
“What no one can deny is that you are still far more likely to get a job and have a long and rewarding career with a degree than without.”
As examples of the contribution that Abertay was making to the economy, Professor King spoke of its official designation as a national centre for excellence in computer games education.
“We are now establishing a major new business support programme for the UK’s creative industries.
“We have been selected to host the new Scotland food and drink skills academy and we continue our world-leading research in environmental sciences and engineering and our nationally-important research in mental health counselling, policing and cancer modelling.”
Professor King told the students, “In short, you have been educated to make a significant social, cultural and industrial contribution to society and our collective economic future.
“And this year, of all years, equipping you properly for your careers is more important than ever,” the Abertay principal said.