A DRAMATIC fall in the number of Scottish postgraduate students over the past decade is threatening the country's future economic competitiveness, the Education Secretary will warn.
Michael Russell will today announce the setting up of a working group to examine why fewer Scots go on to further study after graduating.
The move comes after figures show the number of postgraduate Scottish students studying in Scotland fell by 22 per cent between 2004/05 and 2012/13 - from 22,340 to 17,325.
Unlike undergraduate students, postgraduates have to pay tuition fees which can range from £2,500 to £9,000 a year.
The group will be announced during a keynote address by Mr Russell at a conference on the future of higher education, organised by Edinburgh-based Holyrood magazine.
Mr Russell is expected to tell the conference: "Scotland needs graduates with professional skills and if the decline is not addressed there is a risk to Scotland's ability to remain economically competitive in the longer term.
"The working group will seek the views of students and universities to ensure that a package of support to meet their needs can be put in place."
Mr Russell said the group would also investigate whether the current arrangement, where only certain courses attract tuition fee loans, is a barrier to participation.
The review was welcomed by Alastair Sim, director of Universities Scotland, which represents university principals.
He said: "We have seen a worrying decline in the number of Scottish students taking up postgraduate study at exactly the same time when employers and economic projections tell us Scotland will need these high-level, professional skills.
"Other economies are investing heavily in this level of study and Scotland is at risk of falling behind.
"Research amongst students has found considerable support for loans to be made available to those studying at this level and we feel this would open-up this option to many more students."
Gordon Maloney, president of student body NUS Scotland, also welcomed the review.
He said: "For too long now prospective students have been unable to progress to a postgraduate degree without incurring significant levels of commercial debt or having high personal savings.
"Equally, we need to look at the fee levels our universities are charging for postgraduate degrees and ensure they match the support available, otherwise we risk keeping many financial barriers in place."
The new working group will be chaired by Professor Bryan MacGregor, vice-principal of Aberdeen University, and is due to report next year.
The issue of attracting more Scottish postgraduates has long been a concern. In 2012, Professor Sir Timothy O'Shea, principal of Edinburgh University, said a larger pool of skilled workers was vital to allow Scotland to compete globally.
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 hereComments are closed on this article