We’ve grown so used to the state of inertia that maintains in Scottish politics that when something positive happens it comes as a genuine surprise. This was certainly my response this week when the devolved government announced an inquiry into the sustainability of higher education funding north of the border.
The step is long overdue – university leaders have been warning for years that the current funding model is unfit for purpose. Earlier this year, ministers were forced to bail out Dundee University to the tune of £40 million after it suffered a cash crisis. Edinburgh University and the University of the West of Scotland have announced plans to cut jobs. Others stand on a similar precipice.
The “free” tuition policy pursued by the SNP – and supported by all the main parties – has been a drag on university income. As teaching costs are funded by the Scottish Government, and have been declining in real terms, institutions have been forced to take in more and more foreign students, whose fees help to make up the shortfall. But last year saw a decline in the number of overseas students coming to Scotland, intensifying the crisis. With the geopolitical situation increasingly tense, that decline is surely only likely to continue. As Sir Anton Muscatelli, the former principal of Glasgow University, put it in a recent report, the sector’s “financial strains and chronic under-funding” are such that “it is far from dramatic to state that this could lead to existential challenges for some organisations”.
Praise, then, to Ben Macpherson, the relatively new minister for higher and further education, who has seized the funding thistle and announced a review. Macpherson is that rare thing in SNP circles – a relatively open-minded and deep-thinking minister who wants to get stuff done. He has a track record of being effective, too, having overseen the creation and setting up of Social Security Scotland. If only there were more like him.
Unfortunately, it seems that open-mindedness only stretches so far, as the review will not examine whether free tuition is the right model for the future. Macpherson insists that graduates should not be asked to make a contribution to the cost of their education. Most principals disagree with this position, but given the political unanimity against the imposition of any kind of fee – even a graduate tax – the SNP is under no real pressure from its opponents to rethink. That feels like an opportunity missed.
It’s not yet clear how wide the scope of the inquiry will be. Will it consider the case for a smaller sector, through mergers or closures, for example? What about the relationship between universities and colleges, which should be working more closely and complementarily together? Should more students be pursuing apprenticeships and college courses rather than degrees, in order to close the skills gap identified by Scottish employers – and, if so, how will those seriously underfunded colleges be supported? Should different institutions focus more on different specialisms to increase the sector’s diversity? Should the four-year degree, a Scottish peculiarity that significantly adds to the overall expense, be reconsidered? Which is the best route to boosting the number of spin-outs coming from academia?
Macpherson is at least trying to build consensus behind whatever changes emerge from the review. He said that “this is an issue that goes beyond party political boundaries, which is why the work of MSPs from across the chamber in seeking to find common ground on these complex issues is desirable and important”. Given the failure of Scotland’s parties to work together to solve most major systemic issues, the possibility of collaboration on university funding is to be welcomed. After all, Holyrood was designed to encourage more cross-party working, even if in reality it has become home to the same antagonistic, needlessly oppositional politics as Westminster.
One hopes that the review produces some serious and radical proposals that will offer a brighter future for the nation’s universities, which are one of the jewels in Scotland’s crown and which bolster its international reputation and soft power. And is it too much to hope that this could be just the first effort by government to face up to the many challenges facing Scotland across the board? Will it be equally brave when it comes to tackling the decline in school education and the problems confronting the NHS, or in introducing measures that could lead to increased private-sector growth?
Public confidence in devolution is low and falling, due to that sense of inertia. Voters are heading to the extremes of politics, such is their disillusionment and belief that nothing will continue to happen. The answer to this cannot be more empty rhetoric and government by press release, but a Holyrood and an administration that is brave, effective, and open to genuine change and delivery. At least, on universities, they’re making a start.
[Further reading: Malcolm Offord may be too reasonable for Scottish Reform]
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