The Scottish government has recently made the decision to reverse a pledge to spend £46m on colleges and universities. The funding, which was set to be distributed by the Scottish Funding Council (SFC), had been voted through by MSPs, but has now been identified as an “essential saving.” The college sector was due to receive £26m, and the university sector £20m, but they have been informed that the reversal was necessary to meet other government priorities.
The decision has been met with disappointment and dismay from members of Colleges Scotland and Universities Scotland. The former has expressed concern that removing the equivalent of £1m from each college is “inexplicable,” given that colleges are already struggling due to a lack of funding. Chief Executive Shona Struthers has stated that colleges have been forced to make cuts to courses and wind down parts of their offer due to the lack of financial support.
Universities Scotland’s convener, Prof Dame Sally Mapstone, has also expressed her disappointment, stating that the promised £20m was “far from what was required” but was a welcome step.
The move will compromise their capacity to contribute to the nation’s recovery, and Mapstone believes that it is dismaying that higher education is being deprioritised by the Scottish government, despite the Scottish Parliament having voted for a Scottish Budget that provided for a £20m cash increase in investment in higher education.
The decision to reverse the pledge comes at a challenging time for Scotland’s education sector. Teachers and health workers have received pay settlements, and college lecturers have begun work to rule action by refusing to enter student marks into recording systems in a dispute over pay.
The Scottish Funding Council has acknowledged that the current public spending environment is challenging, and that they will work with the sectors and other stakeholders to consider how collectively they address the challenges ahead to secure the long-term sustainability and continued success of Scotland’s tertiary education sector and impactful research.
The move has been widely criticised by opposition parties, with the Scottish Conservatives’ education spokesman Stephen Kerr describing it as a “total betrayal of our education sector,” and Scottish Labour’s education spokeswoman Pam Duncan-Glancy stating that it was a complete betrayal of students and staff.
The Scottish Lib Dems education spokesman Willie Rennie added that colleges and universities already had difficult decisions to make to balance their budgets after funding reductions by the Scottish government, and that this further cut would not help them educate more people and ready them for the economy, which is desperate for skilled and educated workers.
In a letter to the education committee, Higher and Further Education Minister Graeme Dey has said that the cabinet secretary for education and skills, Jenny Gilruth, has written to the SFC to advise that the additional £46m has been identified as a necessary saving in financial year 2023-24. He added that since the 2023-24 budget announcement, the government has had to make difficult choices in meeting new pressures on the education and skills portfolio.
