Degree of concern

Published on Saturday 12 September 2009 19:47

Scotland's universities have some crucial decisions to make about their future. On the eve of Freshers' Week, education correspondent Fiona MacLeod assesses the challenges ahead

Funding and tuition fees

THE introduction of tuition fees was raised last week by Lord Sutherland, principal of Edinburgh University from 1994 to 2002. He argued they should be introduced in Scotland to help cover the costs of students from poorer backgrounds.

Funding is a key issue for Scottish universities. Before the last budget settlement, Scottish principals said the sector would need 168 million over three years – to be matched with private funding – to remain competitive with universities south of the Border, which have access to extra funding by charging tuition fees.

Although few believe Westminster would now risk raising fees south of the Border before the next general election – as asking parents and students to pay more at a time of recession would be considered political suicide – the fear remains over what will happen beyond that.

Since top-up fees were introduced in England and Wales, fears of inequality among the home nations have increased. Principals here are concerned that the extra income fees generate for their English counterparts, give them a financial advantage. More money allows them to entice the best academics with the best pay, and means they could afford to offer the best labs and facilities.

If the current cap of 3,225 per course per year is lifted, that advantage would increase. If it was removed altogether, the concern is that it would permit universities like Oxford and Cambridge to charge whatever they liked, and some such institutions would become elite and infinitely wealthy bastions of privilege with which no other university would have the cash to compete.

If a funding gap emerges across the Border, Scottish universities could find themselves impoverished second-class institutions. And as the SNP Government has so far ruled out the introduction of fees, where that extra money could come from remains the key unanswered question.

MAIN CHALLENGE: where to find the additional funding which principals say is needed to enable Scottish universities to continue to compete internationally.

Punching above weight in research

A SEVEN-year investigation of university research departments across the UK, published earlier this year, found Scotland is punching above its weight.

The independent Research Assessment Exercise (RAE), which is used to allocate funding, found Scottish universities increased their share of academic effort rated as internationally excellent.

In the previous RAE, conducted seven years ago, Scotland had a 11.6 per cent share of UK research rated internationally excellent or better. In the latest results, that figure rose to 12.3 per cent.

Of all the research Scotland put forward for assessment, 86 per cent was judged to be internationally excellent. Of that, 15 per cent was deemed not only internationally excellent but world-leading.

In total, 1,000 Scottish researchers and their teams were found to be at the forefront of their fields. Universities Scotland, which represents university principals, said the figure was remarkable, given that the nation has only 8.5 per cent of the UK population.

However, the news was not all good, and critics have warned the system favours the large, traditional universities which have well established research departments.

MAIN CHALLENGE: How to ensure that basing funding on the RAE doesn't result in traditional universities bolstering their position at the expense of new universities with fledgling research departments.

Weighing up cost of the extra year

UNIVERSITY principals in Scotland are largely against changing the four-year system, but financial constraints have highlighted the extra costs incurred by Scottish students having to pay for an extra year.

In England, students earn a degree in just three years, while it normally takes four in Scotland.

The difference emanates from fundamental differences in approach in either country.

In England, pupils usually take three A-levels over two years, providing much more specialist knowledge by the time they reach university. Fifth year pupils in Scotland will take up to five subjects at Higher in one year, and then generally go on to a sixth year when they can either take additional Highers or pursue more specialist knowledge in an Advanced Higher. As a result they tend to have a wider knowledge with less specialism. For the Scottish degree, students will take a range of subjects for the first two years. For example, an English student may take philosophy and German as well.

Proponents say this is a key attraction of a Scottish education, producing graduates with a more wide-ranging education. Some Scottish universities have experimented with three year degrees.

MAIN CHALLENGE: Justifying the extra cost and academic worth of the four-year degree to parents, students and universities.

Student finance and debt

GRADUATES this year were expected to incur an average minimum of 13,000 of debt, a figure boosted by the rising costs of heating, rent and food, and which is likely to increase, rather than decrease, in coming years.

One of the SNP Government's first acts in power was to abolish the Graduate Endowment, a policy brought in by the previous Labour-Liberal Democrat administration as a reaction to English tuition fees. This was a bid to inject some cash into higher education with an up-front lump-sum payment and to be paid back once the graduate started earning a certain amount.

A key premise was that the initial money would not go directly to universities but towards helping poorer students. However, it was found few graduates could afford to pay the lump sum of around 2,000 and so the vast majority added it to their student loan debt, meaning very little of it was repaid quickly.

The Scottish Government estimates that scrapping the Graduate Endowment has benefited 50,000 graduates. But the high cost of administrating the scheme with the very little income it actually generated, meant it was a cheap policy for the Scottish Government to abolish.

The recession has increased the problem in that part-time jobs have been scarcer than ever. As a result, student hardship soared and several universities applied to the Student Awards Agency for Scotland (SAAS) for more cash to help their dwindling emergency funds.

The National Union of Students (NUS) Scotland believes the current cohort could end up with debts of 16,000 to go with their degree certificate, but takes the attitude that an even more pressing concern is the lack of money students have to live on before they even reach graduation. NUS Scotland is concerned Scottish students are actually worse off than their colleagues south of the Border.

MAIN CHALLENGE: how best to support the increasing numbers of students at universities in Scotland.

The struggle to remove the financial barrier

IN THE bad old days, universities were seen as the preserve of the privileged wealthy. Institutions such as Oxford and Cambridge, and St Andrews, which have been the target of such criticism, have worked hard to overturn these preconceptions by creating schemes to encourage bright youngsters to apply regardless of their background.

With the extension of university status to polytechnics in the early 1990s, the number of university students from working class backgrounds rose.

Full grants meant anyone who had the ability could attend university. However, the policy became a victim of its own success, and with the target of 50 per cent heading to university, the cost to the state became an enormous burden and increasingly difficult to sustain. Grants were gradually phased out as student loans were increased.

As a result, tuition fees in England, and loans rather than grants in Scotland, were introduced in a bid to find financial solutions.

Progress on widening access to university has since then been minimal. A government report in April revealed the number of students from deprived backgrounds entering higher education in Scotland had increased by only 0.8 per cent since 2001, despite the refusal to introduce tuition fees.

In 2007, the Scottish Funding Council, which distributes government funding to colleges and universities in Scotland, gave universities an extra 10 million to help those from non-traditional backgrounds get a place. That was on top of a 5.7m "widening access premium" designed to help attract students from low-income backgrounds.

But fears are mounting that a university education is returning to only being an option for the wealthy and privileged.

Several studies have shown fear of debt has been discovered as the major deterrent to stop people from going to university.

MAIN CHALLENGE: How to ensure university students come from all walks of life and that a university education doesn't become the preserve of the rich.