University principal makes plea for ‘sustainably funded system’ for the sector
The principal of Edinburgh University has called for a debate on the funding of higher education, as he insisted efforts to secure the sector’s future “should be a political priority”.
Professor Sir Peter Mathieson said a “silver lining” from the financial difficulties being experienced at Dundee University may be that it has drawn attention to issues around how universities are funded.
The University of Dundee is looking to make hundreds of jobs losses as it seeks to deal with a £35 million deficit.
Sir Peter told MSPs on Holyrood’s Education Committee: “Perhaps the only silver lining of what has happened at the University of Dundee is it has got everybody’s attention and suddenly now there is a debate.”
What we need is a sustainably funded system, by whatever mechanism
He added he hoped for a “cross-party debate” in the run-up to next year’s Scottish Parliament elections and beyond, looking at alternative funding systems.
He made the plea as he spoke about the “fragility” of current arrangements, which sees universities rely on income they receive from overseas students to make up for being “inadequately funded” for teaching Scottish students and for research.
Sir Peter, whose own university is seeking to make £140 million of savings, told MSPs: “We are inadequately funded for the education of home students, and we are inadequately funded for research. Both of those activities are under-funded.”
As a result he said the “phenomenon of cross-subsidies” had been developed, with the university relying on funding from international students, and from areas such as renting out surplus accommodation over the summer months.
“Universities have become dependent on cross-subsidy, that has been a phenomenon for well over a decade,” the Edinburgh University principal insisted.
While SNP ministers are steadfastly committed to maintaining free university tuition for students from Scotland studying at the country’s universities, in 2023 Sir Peter suggested graduates could instead “pay the Government back for a proportion of their university fees when they earn enough money to do so”.
While he said then that there should be “calm consideration” of this, Sir Peter told MSPs: “Frankly there was no calm debate.”
Instead he said there were “some rather non-calm interventions by a couple of people directing an attack on me”.
But calling again for a debate on the issue, he stressed how universities are “one of Scotland’s major assets”.
Sir Peter, a member of the board of the Scottish Funding Council, went on to say: “In our opinion everything that can be done to ensure their future should be a political priority. It has not been.”
He added that conference held by the Royal Society of Edinburgh last week had had a “lot of discussion about what other countries do”, with funding models from other countries, England, Wales, Northern Ireland and the Republic of Ireland as well as Australia all being discussed.
The principal added that while it was “fair to say that no-one has the perfect model” he “didn’t hear anybody saying that the current system in Scotland is sustainable”.
He told the committee: “What we need is a sustainably funded system, by whatever mechanism.”
Claire McPherson, the director of Universities Scotland, said there had been a 25% drop in post graduate students in 2023-24 – adding this was “where the bulk of our international students sit”.
She told MSPs: “That equates to around 10,000 students. We have estimated that cost to the sector across the board is about £150 million.”
Speaking about how geopolitical events could impact international student numbers, Ms McPherson continued: “It serves to demonstrate a funding model that is predicated on international student income as a means of cross-subsidy is actually quit significantly at risk, because there are lots of factors outside of the sector’s control, and indeed the Scottish Government’s control, that impact on income and then lead to institutions having to make increasingly difficult decisions.”
