A new structure of drama tuition for Scotland was revealed yesterday, including £1.4m in new funds for the Royal Scottish Academy of Music and Drama in Glasgow.

BRIAN DONNELLY and PHIL MILLER

A new structure of drama tuition for Scotland was revealed yesterday, including £1.4m in new funds for the Royal Scottish Academy of Music and Drama in Glasgow.

However, last night concern was expressed over the details of the "milestone" scheme, to be called the Scottish Stage and Screen Network.

The theatre union Bectu said it was concerned that the move could lead to cuts in teaching posts and a "rationalisation" of existing courses.

The Scottish Stage and Screen Network will link courses at RSAMD with those at Queen Margaret University, Napier University and Edinburgh College of Art's Screen and Media Academy, the Scottish Funding Council announced yesterday.

The shape and final membership of the network is due to be finalised in February next year and a director will be appointed in the spring.

A new drama course in Edinburgh is planned to start in the 2010-11 academic year and as part of the package, the RSAMD in Glasgow will receive the extra funding.

The SFC say it will enable a "convergence of related disciplines such as acting, filmmaking, technical theatre skills, costume design and stage construction across universities and colleges".

The new drama course in Edinburgh will link Queen Margaret University with Napier University and Edinburgh College of Art's Screen and Media Academy.

The QMU is still teaching drama courses, including a BA in drama and theatre arts, but the year's intake of 12 acting and performance students is expected to be the last to receive top-level "conservatoire" standard teaching approved by the National Council for Drama Training.

Paul McManus, of Bectu Scotland, said the union's members believed greater support for the acting and theatre industry in general is needed. He said: "Current levels of film and television production in Scotland have been recognised as a matter of national concern. Equally, theatre funding levels requires constant crisis management in Scotland which means low wages are endemic across the industry.

"Without substantial government investment in the arts, Bectu is concerned that this initiative will simply be perpetuating the skills drain which has been the norm for many years in Scotland.

"Drama training initiatives will not keep high-quality skills in Scotland if there are little or no employment opportunities and low wages are the norm.

"Equally, we would need to be convinced that all this training actually delivers the skills the industry needs, as too often in the past many students have spent years at college only to find that their training is irrelevant to many employers.

"On the face of it, this initiative looks to Bectu like a rationalisation of current courses and potentially jobs in further education, too, and we would be interested to see if there are any projected savings to colleges tied up in these proposals."

The SFC said the move would not mean a reduction of places available or teaching posts.

Mark Batho, the SFC's chief executive, said the network would "provide a nation-wide collaboration of Scottish drama training and bring enormous benefit to students and Scotland as a whole".

John Wallace, principal of the RSAMD, said: "The SFC is to be congratulated on achieving a perfectly pitched solution to realise world-class drama training in Scotland. This is a milestone in the history of the academy and the continuance of excellent drama training in Scotland."

Fiona Hyslop, Cabinet Secretary for Education and Lifelong Learning, said the move "will benefit not just the RSAMD but Scotland as a whole, by enabling Scottish institutions to attract the most gifted drama students and talented staff, through providing highly specialised arts training".

Professor Anthony Cohen, principal of the QMU, said: "We greatly regret that SFC has yet again failed to redress the anomalous position in which Scotland, alone of the UK's funding jurisdictions, does not fund conservatoire drama.

"Moreover, it remains entirely unclear to us how the SFC expects collaborative provision to work among four partners when they appear to be providing funding for only one of them."