Scottish universities avoid worst of cuts in courses

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.