SNP must consider emergency rescue package to save Dundee University from mass job losses

The SNP’s policy of free tuition has resulted in Scotland’s world-renowned universities being under-funded with several now facing serious financial problems

The announcement that Dundee University is to cut 632 jobs – about one in five of its total workforce – is a staggering blow to the city and Scotland as a whole.

The decision was made in response to the institution’s £35 million budget deficit, which has been put down to a "severe drop" in international students and the rise in employers’ National Insurance contributions introduced in Labour’s UK Budget, as well as its own "inadequate financial discipline" and "poor capital planning and investment decisions".

However, regardless of the reasons for the problems, the Scottish Government needs to at least consider some kind of emergency rescue package. Ministers cannot simply look on from the sidelines as one of Scotland’s leading universities is substantially diminished.

Dundee University plans to cut 632 jobs, about 20 per cent of its workforce, as it struggles to deal with £35 million deficit (Picture: Lisa Ferguson) | National World

SNP’s free tuition policy to blame?

Unfortunately, universities minister Graeme Dey’s remark that Dundee was “an autonomous institution” did not encourage hope that he plans to treat the situation with sufficient seriousness. While he pointed to a previously announced £15m fund to help struggling universities and said further funding requests would be “carefully considered”, it was unclear whether this would be to save jobs or help pay for redundancy packages.

For context, the jobs set to be lost at Dundee are about 230 more than the number that will be lost with the closure of Grangemouth’s oil refinery. The refinery’s value to the economy is considerable, but so is educating our young people.

With other universities in financial trouble, the question must be asked whether the SNP’s insistence on free tuition for Scottish students – a policy that has resulted in the government short-changing universities by providing too little money to cover the cost of their education – is part of the problem.

Liberal Democrat education spokesperson Willie Rennie MSP said there had “clearly been some reckless decisions taken by Dundee University leadership, but this situation also reflects the underlying Scottish Government funding model”.

Scotland’s universities are as world-renowned as our scenery, whisky and golf courses and of fundamental importance to the nation. The SNP cannot simply shrug their shoulders as these valuable national assets become as beset by crises as the NHS, schools, ferry services... the list goes on.