Universities Scotland has called for clarification over £50 million-worth of higher and further education funds.

The demand came after Scottish Labour accused the Scottish Government of secretly clawing back the money from the body which allocates cash to Scotland’s colleges and universities.

But a Scottish Government spokesman insisted that they had not lost out on a “single penny”.

A spokesman for Universities Scotland said that the accusations would be "concerning for universities given there were real terms cuts to overall teaching and research budgets last year. We are very keen to have early clarification on how this underspend arose and why it was returned to Government rather than reallocated to university budgets.

“Having £50 million right now would be a significant help in starting a climb back to sustainable funding levels in universities’ teaching and research budgets.”

The row centres on last year's Scottish Funding Council (SFC) budget.

Labour said that the SFC spent £50million less in 2015-16 than was approved by MSPs.

The party said that the money should have remained with the SFC to be spent on colleges and universities.

Labour education spokesperson Iain Gray said: “This paper reveals the SNP’s number one priority on Scottish education is simply spin. There are serious questions to answer why the SNP budget said one thing and the instructions to the Scottish Funding Council said another.

“Having accumulated a surplus over a number of the years the Scottish Funding Council should have been able to use this money to spend on our colleges and universities."

A Scottish Government spokesman said: “These claims are incorrect. Universities and colleges have not lost one single penny. What is more, this accounting adjustment was fully and publicly reported to Parliament in September.

“The SFC reserves came about because its allocation from the Scottish Government is made on a financial year basis, yet its spending is on an academic year basis. That means the SFC needs the flexibility to manage its cash flow between financial years to ensure all of its academic year funding obligations are met.

“Following the award of additional funding to the SFC in the 2011 spending review, the SFC rolled forward larger than normal financial year budgetary reserves that are now being corrected via a one-off accounting adjustment.”