Big-hitting Scots universities warn funding gap could cost them dear

Published on Wednesday 27 April 2011 14:54

SCOTLAND's universities are "punching above their weight" in funding, compared with the rest of the UK, according to new figures.

However, university leaders said about half their income was from private and international sources and warned that if the expected funding gap was not filled next year, overall funding would slip.

The latest numbers from the UK Higher Education Statistics Agency (Hesa) show that Scottish universities had an income of 2.8 billion in total. That compares to UK income for universities of 26.8bn and income for England of 22.2bn.

Scottish institutions have more than 10.5 per cent of the total UK income but Scotland has just 8.5 per cent of the population.

A spokeswoman for Universities Scotland said the latest figures showed the economic value that universities, as an industry, contributed to Scotland.

She said: "Half of the sector's 2.8bn income is from private and international sources that universities attract into Scotland because of their strength in teaching and research.

"Scotland's universities continue to punch above their weight.

"However, the time-lag in these statistics means this is a snap-shot before this year's cuts to university funding."

She warned that the additional income universities brought into the Scottish economy was dependent on filling an expected funding gap next year.

She said: "Success in levering in income from private and international sources depends on having stable public funding.

"It's good news that Scotland's universities have so far been resilient in the face of recession and have been able to grow their income from private sources, but this success could be undermined if politicians don't act quickly to fully close the funding gap to English competitors following the election."

Principals have previously warned that the funding gap for universities could be higher than 200 million next year after cuts to the sector from the Scottish Government.

The Scottish Government, however, puts the expected shortfall at about 90m and says plans to raise fees for English students, in line with fees paid south of the Border, will help alleviate the problem.

Last year universities saw a cut in the number of government-funded places. which the institutions agreed to pay for from their own reserves.

They said this was only sustainable for one year and if the government did not make up this shortfall next year, they would be forced to cut student places.

In the latest figures, just two universities saw a decrease in funding between 2008-9 and 2009-10.Abertay in Dundee saw its overall funding drop by 1.5m from 37.8m to 36.3m from 2008-09 to 2009-10, and Queen Margaret University, near Edinburgh, saw its overall income fall from 35.2m in 2008-9 to 33.6m in 2009-10.

A spokesman for Abertay said: "The fall was due to a few large items in the first year so this is not representative of a typical year for Abertay.

"The university has been in surplus for number of years and financially we are very sound with low borrowing and high reserves."

However, the falls were not unexpected after seven universities in 2009 were told their research funding would be cut.

Among the worst affected was Stirling, which suffered a cut of 1.3m despite being the top-rated Scottish institution for nurse training, and Strathclyde, which saw its budget cut by 2.4m despite its business faculty being highly rated.

Education leaders said at the time there were "serious questions" over a funding system that failed to reward research excellence.