Students take a sober view of university’s alcohol bill

Leaders of the National Union of Students Scotland have criticised Glasgow University for spending £75,000 on wine over the past three years at a time of planned cuts.

The students say it is “entirely unacceptable” for the university to approve such expenditure while it is “pleading poverty”.

Details of spending on wine, obtained under a Freedom of Information request, reveals what it has in stock. Among the higher-end purchases are 28 bottles from the French champagne house, Heidsieck Monopole, and 26 bottles from the Bordeaux estate, Chateau Beaumont. Its wine cellar also has no less than 66 bottles of Wither Hills, a sauvignon blanc from New Zealand, and 38 bottles of Dinastia Vivanco Rioja Crianza.

The collection also includes a raft of plonk costing as little as £1 a bottle. The university says the wine is used for events such as delegate visits, official lunches and even weddings.

But Robin Parker, NUS Scotland president, said: “It’s unacceptable for Glasgow to spend tens of thousands of pounds on expensive wine and champagne during a period where it was pleading poverty, threatening course cuts and calling for tuition fees.

“The Scottish Government has proposed a massive increase in funding to universities and we need to make sure this finds its way to the front-line for students, not to luxuries like this. That’s something I think we’d all drink to.”

A university spokesman said: “This wine is used for a variety of internal and external commercial events, such as conferences, seminars, delegate visits, official lunches and many weddings at our chapel. Glasgow is not unusual in this.”

Edinburgh University said it had not spent a penny on wine in three years, thanks to a gift of a 100 cases from a former student in 2009.