Universities 'get less cash' since devolution

Published on Monday 22 September 2008 22:48

UNIVERSITIES are getting a lower proportion of Scotland's overall budget than when the Scottish Parliament opened in 1999, say principals.

Professor Anton Muscatelli, convener of umbrella group Universities Scotland and principal of Heriot-Watt, will tell the parliament's education committee tomorrow that there has been a real-term drop of 0.2 per cent in the past year in cash for universities.

The economist will say Scotland is making only modest increases in funding, compared with significant increases invested by rival nations. He will argue that matching the investment made by other countries will be impossible if the next spending review does not provide substantially more cash.

Prof Muscatelli said: "It is straightforwardly the case that the proportion of the Scottish Parliament's budget invested in higher education has fallen since devolution.

"There may be very good reasons why these decisions were made, but it does show that the current financial position of universities is a result of political decisions taken over the last ten years."

Universities Scotland has submitted evidence to the committee which says in 1999 the total Scottish Government budget was 16,213 billion and universities received 589 million – 3.63 per cent. In 2009-10, Scotland has 34,760.5 billion and universities will receive 1.1 billion – 3.16 per cent of the budget.

Prof Muscatelli said that, given the current crisis in the financial sector, universities had a crucial role to play in retraining the workforce.

A Scottish Government spokeswoman said Westminster had imposed the tightest settlement since devolution and that Holyrood was investing a higher proportion of its spending on Scotland's universities than the previous administration – a 2.9 per cent real-term increase.

She added: "Universities have also received additional funding totalling 70 million since the Spending Review was published, taking Scottish Government investment in the sector to more than 1 billion a year."

Before the election last year, university principals had said 168 million was needed to stay competitive with English universities, which charge fees. But they were left disappointed with just 30 million for the next year.

BACKGROUND

TODAY marks the final meeting of the Joint Future Thinking Taskforce, set up between government and university principals to investigate future funding for the sector.

A draft report concludes Scotland needs more postgraduate places and universities need more state funding to compete with universities South of the Border, which can charge fees.

However, critics slammed the venture as a talking shop and a face-saving exercise for both sides.

University rectors, unusually, joined forces to criticise those draft conclusions and demand representation for students and lecturers on the taskforce.

However, they supported the call for more cash.