Analysis: Announcement is another step towards sustainable settlement

Published on Tuesday 12 July 2011 15:58

OFFA's announcement is another step towards a sustainable funding settlement which enables universities to make our full contribution to Scotland's economic success and social cohesion.

It is part of a long and sometimes difficult journey over the past months.

The autumn of 2010 saw a "perfect storm" of challenges for universities. Cuts to the Scottish budget resulted in universities facing an 11 per cent cut in teaching grant while maintaining student numbers - a situation which was recognised as unsustainable by the Scottish Government.

Damaging proposals from the UK Border Agency threatened our success in attracting talented international students to Scotland. The Browne Review ushered in a radical new funding regime for English universities - a route which neither Universities Scotland nor Scottish Government thought was right for Scotland but which the UK government estimated would result in a 10 per cent increase in funding for English universities.

This was an obvious competitive threat to our ability to maintain Scotland as a leading international hub of research and development, and to offer Scottish students the range and quality of experience they deserve. All this happened in a pre-election political environment where we could make no assumptions about whether a new administration would act to secure a sustainable future for Scotland's universities

The situation is progressively becoming clearer. Joint work by Universities Scotland and the Scottish Government has established a robust methodology for assessing the scale of the funding gap. On the basis of that work, the First Minister made the crucial commitment that his government would "fill any funding gap". The manifesto on which the Scottish Government was elected is clear that Scotland's universities will remain internationally competitive and truly excellent in world terms. At the end of last month, the Scottish Government outlined its plans to increase fees paid by students who live in the rest of the UK; a difficult but necessary step to avoid Scotland becoming the "cheap" option. The new system should protect places for Scottish students and enable some re-investment of funding in teaching for all students in our diverse university sector. Even the UK Borders Agency has made important changes to its proposals, helping to ensure that Scotland remains open to the world's talent.

The detail of the access agreements approved by Offa is complex and we will work closely with the Scottish Government to ensure that this is well understood.

• Alastair Sim is director of Universities Scotland