Scottish courses could be axed if fees drive UK students away

Education Correspondent

Monday 10 October 2011

A LEADING Scottish university has warned courses could be cut across higher education if income from students from the rest of the UK dries up because of higher fees.

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EXCLUSIVE Andrew Denholm Education Correspondent

The concerns from Glasgow University come in a submission to the Scottish Government’s consultation on the introduction of fees for students from the rest of the UK – England, Wales and Northern Ireland (RUK).

The submission states: “There remains a high level of uncertainty as to how students will respond to the fee regimes being introduced by the four countries of the UK.“Given that likely fee levels will not cover the full costs of teaching, there is little financial upside if Scottish universities are able to increase the total number of RUK students studying in Scotland.“However, if the total number of RUK students studying in Scotland decreases significantly, then there will be substantial financial loss across the sector – probably concentrated on a small number of universities.“If universities are unable to bridge this gap from other funding streams then they will obviously need to reduce costs. This may include reshaping of course provision.”Last month Glasgow’s principal, Anton Muscatelli, said the fee for an undergraduate degree would be £6750 a year, with all RUK students entering first year awarded a bursary or fee waiver of £1000. However, those studying medicine, dentistry and veterinary medicine will be charged £9000 a year, reflecting the higher costs.The uncertainty over student numbers reflects similar concerns from other university principals who appeared before the Scottish Parliament’s Education Committee last week.Professor Sir Timothy O’Shea, principal of Edinburgh University, which is charging the maximum £9000, told MSPs it was “extremely hard” to predict what will happen in the admissions process.“In the case of Edinburgh University, we have looked at the possibility of an increase of up to 20% of RUK students,” he said.“At the same time we have modelled the possibility of a 20% drop because anybody working in the planning has great difficulty in predicting what will happen,” he said.“My own intuition is that ... we will see reasonable stability, but I certainly wouldn’t bet money on that because we have seen the most dramatic change in the pattern of fee structure across the UK and we would be foolish to say we knew exactly or even approximately what would happen.”Mr O’Shea went on to stress that given the university currently has 50,000 well-qualified applicants from the rest of the UK for just 4500 places, it would require a “quite extraordinary change in demand” to see numbers decline.Seamus McDaid, principal of West of Scotland University, said he expected RUK numbers to increase.“My expectation would be that over the next three or four years we would see probably fairly significant increases in percentage terms,” he said.Last week, The Herald revealed that Scottish universities would make close to £40 million a year from charging fees to students from the rest of the UK by 2015-16.An analysis of the level of fees charged to students from England, Wales and Northern Ireland shows that in four years’ time – when fees will be fully phased in – profits will be about £38m.The need to alter the fee level paid by RUK students in Scotland was prompted by UK Government changes to university funding.The SNP Government, because institutions were allowed to charge up to £9000 a year in the rest of the UK, decided to let Scots institutions charge similar fees to prevent them becoming a cheap option.The charging of fees was also seen as helping to close the funding gap between Scotland and the rest of the UK.The average cost across Scottish universities is just under £7000 a year although they remain free to Scottish students.

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Scottish courses could be axed if fees drive UK students away

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