New universities just 'a con trick' by Major says education expert

Published on Tuesday 13 October 2009 22:05

A SENIOR education figure has accused John Major's government of perpetrating a "con trick" when they created a whole raft of new universities in 1992.

Professor Anthony Cohen, who retired earlier this year as principal of Edinburgh's Queen Margaret University, also called for a radical change to how universities are financed to prevent them falling behind their English counterparts

He said awarding colleges the status of universities was not backed by sufficient cash and that the disparity in research funding had remained "static" ever since.

He was also critical of a taskforce recently set up to look at university funding, and joined a growing chorus for a comprehensive independent review of how universities are paid for.

Prof Cohen said: "So far, the Scottish Government has just about been able to keep the funding of Scottish universities comparable with English universities.

"But if the cap is raised to 5,000, or in the case of some, significantly higher, there is no way the Scottish Government could keep Scottish universities comparable."

His views will add to mounting pressure on the government to re-examine how universities are funded.

Yesterday James Mitchell, professor of politics at Strathclyde University, called on the government to ditch its antipathy towards tuition fees to solve the funding problem.

Fears are growing that English universities will become richer through access to tuition fees, enabling them to employ the best staff and offer better facilities, tempting the brightest students away from Scotland.

Labour education spokeswoman Rhona Brankin backed calls for a comprehensive review. She said: "We need to examine how we can ensure Scottish universities are still the best 60 years from now."

Ms Brankin was critical of the SNP government for scrapping the graduate endowment which she said removed a source of finance for universities and helped poorer students.

She said: "There wasn't support for upfront tuition fees but there are a whole range of options to look at."

Writing in The Scotsman yesterday, Prof Mitchell was critical of the decision to scrap tuition fees north of the Border.

He said: "The Scottish Parliament made an early decision that needs to be looked at again. It was a mistake. It is likely that it will take many years to reverse. But that process needs to begin."

A Scottish Government spokeswoman defended the taskforce, saying it created a new "Horizon Fund" to provide money for collaborative projects in line with government targets.

She said: "Given these changes are being implemented for the first time this year, we consider that it is premature to be reviewing the system again."