SCOTTISH universities could face a funding shortfall under controversial proposals from Westminster.
The threat comes after the UK government announced plans to change the way teaching quality at universities in England and Wales is assessed.
Under its Green Paper, universities judged to be amongst the best will be allowed to increase tuition fees in line with inflation.
That means universities such as Edinburgh, St Andrews and Glasgow could fall behind in the fees they charge to students from the rest of the UK (rUK) - which are currently capped at £9000.
Student body NUS Scotland said Scottish universities could either face a funding gap or increase fees for rUK students - with greater funding from the public purse unlikely.
Rob Henthorn, vice-president of NUS Scotland, said: "We’ve created a higher education system in Scotland that rejects the marketisation that we’ve seen elsewhere in the UK with a broad consensus against the introduction of tuition fees.
"However, we are particularly concerned that the introduction of these measures will lead to higher fees in England, potentially triggering a race to the top for rUK fees in Scotland.
"These students already pay up to £9,000 a year over four years and we hope Scottish universities and the wider sector will join us in rejecting the premise of the Green Paper and what it stands for."
The Royal Society of Edinburgh also issued a warning over Westminster's proposed Teaching Excellence Framework (TEF).
The society said if Scottish institutions decide to have no involvement with the new quality system it could have "significant and potentially adverse" consequences for the higher education sector.
Its report said: "Student recruitment from the rest of the UK and internationally is vital to Scottish institutions and should TEF become widely cited it may damage the position of higher education institutions to be outside this framework.
"It is inevitable that metrics used in TEF will be aggregated into league tables accessible to prospective students in choosing at which institution to study.
"Irrespective of whether Scottish universities are a part of TEF they are likely to be included in such tables by default. This could be damaging."
The Royal Society said that even if Scottish institutions joined the new system they could find themselves at a "financial disadvantage".
"As English universities will be required to pay towards TEF it appears likely Scottish universities would be expected to do likewise.
"However, due to the differences between Scotland and England regarding who is required to pay tuition fees, the potential increase in such fees for Scottish universities would be applicable only to a minority of students, but this is a large minority in some Scottish institutions."
A Scottish Government spokesman said: “Access to higher education should be based on the ability to learn not the ability to pay and we are committed to maintaining this policy. The proposed TEF raises significant implications for Scotland’s higher education sector."
Why are you making commenting on The Herald only available to subscribers?
It should have been a safe space for informed debate, somewhere for readers to discuss issues around the biggest stories of the day, but all too often the below the line comments on most websites have become bogged down by off-topic discussions and abuse.
heraldscotland.com is tackling this problem by allowing only subscribers to comment.
We are doing this to improve the experience for our loyal readers and we believe it will reduce the ability of trolls and troublemakers, who occasionally find their way onto our site, to abuse our journalists and readers. We also hope it will help the comments section fulfil its promise as a part of Scotland's conversation with itself.
We are lucky at The Herald. We are read by an informed, educated readership who can add their knowledge and insights to our stories.
That is invaluable.
We are making the subscriber-only change to support our valued readers, who tell us they don't want the site cluttered up with irrelevant comments, untruths and abuse.
In the past, the journalist’s job was to collect and distribute information to the audience. Technology means that readers can shape a discussion. We look forward to hearing from you on heraldscotland.com
Comments & Moderation
Readers’ comments: You are personally liable for the content of any comments you upload to this website, so please act responsibly. We do not pre-moderate or monitor readers’ comments appearing on our websites, but we do post-moderate in response to complaints we receive or otherwise when a potential problem comes to our attention. You can make a complaint by using the ‘report this post’ link . We may then apply our discretion under the user terms to amend or delete comments.
Post moderation is undertaken full-time 9am-6pm on weekdays, and on a part-time basis outwith those hours.
Read the rules hereLast Updated:
Report this comment Cancel