Salmond rebuts university job-cut accusations

Published on Thursday 21 February 2008 20:59

ALEX Salmond defended his higher education budget settlement yesterday, despite reports that one university has already started cutting staff because of a the squeeze from the Scottish Government.

The First Minister told MSPs universities were getting a bigger share of government cash than in the past but all were also being expected to look for efficiencies.

Mr Salmond was responding to a report in The Scotsman yesterday on staff cuts at Dundee University, with Sir Alan Langlands, the principal, warning that the Scottish Government's "poor" financial settlement was one factor in forcing him to find 3 million of savings.

Nicol Stephen, the Scottish Liberal Democrat leader, seized on Sir Alan's remarks during First Minister's Questions to ask Mr Salmond who was responsible for the job cuts, the lecturers and staff or the First Minister.

Mr Stephen said: "Today Dundee University has confirmed significant job losses – more than 100 staff will be affected."

He demanded: "Is this an efficiency saving or a cut?

"And will the lecturers and students who suffer as a result be able to tell the difference?"

Mr Salmond told him the university had been looking to make efficiencies for some time, and claimed that process had started in February last year – when Mr Stephen was deputy first minister.

Mr Salmond added: "The university expect that at the end of this process of efficiency savings, as many people will be employed in the university as lecturers as there are at the present moment. That does not seem to me the story of an institution in decline.

"It seems an institution which is facing up to a difficult budgetary situation in a responsible manner looking to achieve excellence in higher education and university services in Scotland."

Mr Stephen insisted: "The truth is that Scottish universities are facing a record cash crisis. Never since the creation of this parliament has there been a real-terms cash cut in university funding until now."

Mr Salmond told Mr Stephen: "In the spending review period, expenditure on universities and higher education will increase in real terms.

"That will represent 3.18 per cent of total Scottish Government expenditure.

"In the spending review of 2002 and 2004 the figures stood at 3.13 per cent and 3.15 per cent. That would indicate to me university funding is rising as a percentage of the total Scottish budget."