Student applications soar but many set to miss out due to lack of funding, warns SAC

Applications to study agriculture are up by 64 per cent with a 57 per cent increase at the Aberdeen campus, 65 per cent at Ayr and 33 per cent at Edinburgh, SAC chief executive, Professor Bill McKelvey, said yesterday.

"The bad news is that we will be unable to place all the applicants because of the Scottish Government's cap on student numbers and public expenditure cuts," he said.

"Our teaching budget was cut by 10 per cent last year, although we received increased funding for specialist courses. The selection process will have to be tightened by increasing the qualification criteria for entrance."

Students failing to gain entry will be encouraged to consider applying to one of Scotland's three land-based further education colleges at Elmwood (Fife), Oatridge (Midlothian) and Barony (Dumfries) to gain a diploma that would help them to qualify for entry to SAC for a higher qualification at a later date.

The integration of courses offered at the three colleges with SAC was announced by the Scottish Government this year.

SAC is not permitted to make up any funding shortfall for teaching by charging students from within Scotland, although students from outwith the country pay fees.

"We need to see funding coming through to match the situation in England where government funding is supplemented by student fees," said McKelvey.

SAC has avoided a reduction in funding from the Scottish Government for research and has increased total funding for research by 14 per cent to 18.7 million as a result of winning contracts from the European Union, the UK government and the Agricultural and Horticultural Development Board.

In addition, a 3m contract for research in animal welfare has recently been awarded by the EU.

The college is halfway through a five-year 32m investment programme, which is being achieved without recourse to increased borrowing. A new 70m state-of-the-art campus at Ayr, jointly funded by SAC, the University of the West of Scotland and the Scottish Government, will have its first intake of students in October.

Expansion of commercial activities is also taking place in England, where SAC has won a 1.7m two-year rural training programme to provide a rural training programme for the farming, food and forestry sectors in Cumbria.

"We are bullish about the future and our business is being driven forward by external factors such as climate change, and the need to increase food production to meet the needs of an expanding world population," said McKelvey, who is due to retire next January.

The job of chief executive and principal of the college has already been advertised and an appointment is expected to be made in the autumn.