Calls for university funding to increase by £168m
ANDREW DENHOLM Feb 26 2007
Scottish universities will today call for a 15% increase in public funding above inflation by 2010-11 to keep the sector competitive in the face of rising wage and fuel bills and the impact of top-up fees south of the border.
The request from Universities Scotland, which represents university principals, amounts to an additional £168m over three years, including £55m for pay, pensions and utilities, £32.5m for research and £25m for infrastructure.
The increase would bring the total public funding of Scotland's universities - which aim to raise an additional £170m themselves - to £1.28bn. Universities Scotland, which will submit the request as part of the Scottish Executive's comprehensive spending review, also wants to see the first expansion in student numbers for a decade.
By 2010-11, officials want to see an extra 4000 undergraduates, costing a total of £24m, and an additional 4000 postgraduates, costing £21m.
The bid comes at a time of difficulty for universities in Scotland following the signing last summer of a pay deal for lecturers worth 13.1% over three years which followed a boycott of exams that threatened graduations.
Although initial reactions to the deal were positive, because it allowed students to graduate and, to some extent, addressed concerns from lecturers that their pay was falling behind, universities warned the offer was at the "limits of affordability".
The sector is having to manage its resources pretty carefully and people have to take some difficult choices.
The call for extra funding comes as First Minister Jack McConnell makes a major speech on higher and further education in Glasgow today.
Mr McConnell will speak at the NUS Scotland and Scottish Higher and Further Education Funding Councils Widening Access Conference.
Universities estimate that additional cost pressures facing the sector include £60m for pay, £30m for pensions and £20m in fuel bills - a total of £110m by 2008-09.
So far this year, budgetary pressures have led to Dundee University announcing 100 job losses, while Strathclyde University is to lose 250 posts.
Earlier this month, Stirling University said it was predicting a budget shortfall of £1.8m, while last year Glasgow University shed 230 staff and Glasgow Caledonian University introduced a voluntary redundancy scheme.
Fears over the future of the sector have been heightened by uncertainty over the impact of top-up fees with warnings that English universities could use the extra money generated to attract research talent from Scotland.
Commenting on the spending review bid, Sir Muir Russell, principal of Glasgow University and convener of Universities Scotland, said the additional money would ensure the competitiveness of the sector until 2010-11, when the £3000-a-year cap on top-up fees could be lifted.
"This level of resource would be what we need to run the business in the way we need, taking account of our feelings about competitive pressures and costs," he said. "This is the resource that we judge will be needed to keep the sector competitive."
Sir Muir went on to state that higher education was facing difficult times, but dismissed talk of a crisis in the sector.
"The sector is having to manage its resources pretty carefully and people have to take some difficult choices, but I would not want the impression to be given that there is a crisis. You want to be able to run universities with a small margin of profit which gives us room to invest."
A Universities Scotland spokesman added: "We know this is an ambitious target, but we think it is an investment which can make a real difference."
See also
Funding postgrads 16-02-07
Scottish school testing 09-01-07
Skills boost 23-02-07