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POLITICIANS must up their game and ditch the marketised model which has left deficits soaring and jobs in peril across Scotland’s universities, trade unions have warned.
The exhortation comes after a tumultuous week in the sector, as the University of Dundee announced plans to axe 20 per cent of its workforce — 632 jobs — in a bid to close a £35 million black hole in its budget.
Over the weekend, SNP education secretary Jenny Gilruth announced £10m in extra funding to the sector in a bid to ward off compulsory redundancies, but with eight of the country’s 18 universities running deficits totalling £218m, STUC general secretary Roz Foyer has warned ministers “cannot just keep putting sticking plasters on gaping wounds.”
“The answer lies in fully funding the sector,” said Ms Foyer in the Herald newspaper, “we cannot continue to rely on an increasingly marketised model overly dependent on overseas students.
“We need to recognise education for what it is: a critical part of Scotland’s economy — both locally and nationally — which provides people with the skills to succeed in their life and in their work.”
The crisis sweeping the sector has also reached the University of Edinburgh.
Despite not running a deficit — enjoying £3 billion in net assets and endowments, surpassed only by Oxford and Cambridge among British universities— its vice-chancellor and principal Prof Sir Peter Mathieson sparked workers’ fury last month after warning “nothing was off the table” in his £140m cuts plans, including compulsory redundancies.
Three-quarters of staff now stand ready to strike against those proposals, according to a UCU-run consultative ballot.
“Instead of pressing on with plans to make the biggest cuts ever seen in Scottish higher education, Peter Mathieson needs to work with UCU, use the university’s reserves and rule out compulsory redundancies,” warned union general secretary Jo Grady.
“Politicians need to up their game as well and make clear that cuts of this scale are completely unacceptable, unnecessary and will cause lasting harm to one of Scotland’s most respected universities.”
Responding, Sir Peter said Edinburgh was “not immune to the challenges that the higher education sector is currently facing.”
“While we are not currently in deficit, we must take clear and decisive action now to avoid this,” he said.
The Scottish government was contacted for comment.
