Colleges 'less open than Soviet schools'

Scotland's universities and colleges are less democratic and transparent than educational institutions in some former communist countries, it has been claimed.

Members of the University and College Union (UCU) Scotland and the Educational Institute of Scotland held a rally outside the Scottish Parliament urging MSPs to honour their election commitments to review the management and governance of educational institutions.

The unions say recent decisions on funding, course cuts and redundancies made by unelected university governors lack transparency and accountability, and are "removed from reality".

UCU official Mary Senior said: "We have been particularly concerned about the way decisions have been taken in Scotland's universities about cuts to jobs, cuts to courses, cuts to various services, cuts to departments."