Scottish universities avoid worst of cuts in courses

By CHRIS MARSHALL
Published on Thursday 23 February 2012 12:47

SCOTLAND’S universities have avoided the worst of higher education cuts, which have seen the number of courses slashed by more than a quarter across the UK, a new report has found.

Research by the University and College Union (UCU) found that the number of full-time undergraduate courses at Scottish universities had fallen by just 3 per cent since 2006.

That compared with a figure of 31 per cent for England and 27 per cent for the UK as a whole.

UCU general secretary Sally Hunt said: “Scotland is to be congratulated on not only maintaining free education, but also choice, in contrast to the rest of the UK. However, there are real dangers with introducing markets into education and we really cannot afford to limit choices for students.

“Scotland’s global academic reputation is built on the broad range of subjects available and on the freedom of academics to push at the boundaries and create new areas of study. It is to Scotland’s credit that this has been secured and that academic freedom has been protected and enhanced.

“We will work with the Scottish Government to ensure this continues to be the case.”

The union said the number of students in Scotland had remained steady over the past six years, with an increase in applications leading to most courses being full.

From the start of the next academic year, students from the rest of the UK studying at Scottish universities will be required to pay fees of up to £9,000 a year. Scots and students from the rest of the EU will remain exempt from the fees.

According to the UCU research, the biggest cuts were seen in so-called Stem subjects (science, technology, engineering and maths). While there was a 9 per cent drop in the number of Stem and social science subjects offered at Scottish universities, arts and humanities courses fell by only 2 per cent.

Alastair Sim, director of Universities Scotland, said: “Scotland’s universities are proud to offer a wide breadth of courses that are developed and reviewed in response to student and employer demands.

“A strength of the four-year degree is that it offers students greater opportunities for combined studies to take advantage of that breadth.”

Last month, the Scottish Government claimed its position on tuition fees had been “vindicated” after figures showed the country’s universities had been protected from the worst of a UK-wide downturn in applicant numbers.

Figures published by the Universities and Colleges Admission Service (Ucas) showed a 1.1 per cent fall in the number of Scots hoping to study in their home country, with a 5.6 per cent fall also recorded in the number of English applicants.

The Ucas figures, which compared January applicant numbers with the same period last year, showed that, overall, there was a 0.2 per cent rise in the number of people applying to study in Scotland, compared with an 8.5 per cent fall in England.

Comments

There are 6 comments to this article

Order by:

• Newest first
• |
• Oldest first

Page 1 of 1

• 1
• Show all

6

Jolly

Friday, February 24, 2012 at 12:55 PM

Tiny I feel you have made a clear-cut argument in favour of total independence for Scotland!!

• Report Unsuitable

5

Finnzz

Thursday, February 23, 2012 at 07:02 PM

Shock, horror, Scottish Universities lead the way in the UK. ................Not only is a degree from a Scottish University more likely to lead to employment, but its academic prowess has been upheld by a Government that puts the tradition of free education first. This must be sooo embarrassing for the Unionist naysayers.

• Report Unsuitable

4

Faceless_bureaucrat

Thursday, February 23, 2012 at 12:28 PM

9% cut in Engineering courses. As an engineering graduate myself I'm not in the least surprised. So the taxpayer is still funding those stupid media studies, leisure management and daft technology courses.Come on politicians you have a duty to the taxpayer -close Caledonian, UWS and Abertay - all are doing worthless courses. #2 - There isn't going to be in industry in the future, thirty years of brain drain and social engineering has only left the flotsam in that country,none of whom have a chance in the competition wars with Korea,Japan,China and Germany. Even the "green" industry is completely dominated by foreigners as Donald Trump recently remarked.

• Report Unsuitable

3

Tiny

Thursday, February 23, 2012 at 08:25 AM

How humiliating all this news must be for Unionists. All last year we heard about how the SNP were destroying our universities and now all the figures prove just what a good job they are doing, vastly superior to Westminster. This is the problem with petty scaremongering, sooner or later the truth will out and people can see exactly who is delivering and who is politicking

• Report Unsuitable

2

Hector the Lessor

Thursday, February 23, 2012 at 06:56 AM

This is good news? You have experienced a drop of 9% in the courses that Scotland relies on for its next generation of engineers and science graduates. I seem to remember an acquaintance of mine who was studying chemical engineering. At that time the failure rate for students who did not meet the grade was about 50%. The guys who did meet the challenge could be described as amongst Scotland's finest. The rates of pay available to them in Scotland were miserly. I presume that even world wide, the local cook on an oilrigg earns the same money. The writing is on the wall, unless you support your finest graduates in Scotland, the guys who run your industry in the future will come from Asia.

• Report Unsuitable

1

Charles Linskaill

Thursday, February 23, 2012 at 01:55 AM

Great Scottish University Figures, Scotland by all means, Keep it Going!

• Report Unsuitable

Order by:

• Newest first
• |
• Oldest first

Page 1 of 1

• 1
• Show all

Logged in as:

Comment here. Start typing your comment here:

Post comment

Please adhere to our Community guidelines

Your view

Please sign in to be able to comment on this story.