KATE SMITH With the changing political culture and climate in Scotland, is it time to ask how the university sector can be reformed? When the Tories conferred university status on myriad colleges in the early 1990s it was hailed as a great democratisation of the higher education sector. Students from lower-income families would benefit from greater access and the newly entitled universities would serve these students.
Yet more than 15 years later some of these new Scottish universities have failed to shine, not only on the international stage but on attracting and teaching local learners. There are now 20 universities in this small land. According to the Times Higher Education world rankings, Edinburgh is at number 23, St Andrews at 76, Glasgow at 83, Aberdeen at 137 and Dundee at 171. These universities are focusing on excellence and value with some innovative progressive initiatives, including wider access for learners.
At the other end of the scale, some, but not all, of Scotland's smallest universities are floundering. As private institutions receiving public funds, scrutiny of how these funds are spent in these smallest of new universities is weak. Rather than investing in those at the chalk face - the teaching staff - the salaries of many of the management would be very generous for positions in private business. The total of these salaries is often an eye-wateringly high proportion of the total grant to the new universities - which is not the case in the much larger, older universities.
This upside-down resourcing results in ludicrous situations of cost-cutting. At one small new university, a photocopying ban was in place for lecturing staff, who were unable to produce handouts for students, while the principal was chauffeured to work in a limousine which he also sent to pick up documents.
Some small towns and cities now boast not one but two universities. Each institution has its own block grant of millions of pounds of taxpayers' money. There is much replication and universities have an army of bureaucrats running identical departments just a few miles apart. Duplication also extends to courses, degrees and academic staff.
It is the learners who suffer - and their parents, who make sacrifices to help them through university. The lecturers' union, the UCU, will today debate inflation-busting pay rises enjoyed by principals and senior management, including the so-called "profligate principals" of some of the small new universities. Average salaries for principals are £162,000, a rise of 5.2% on the previous year, while lecturers were given 3.5%. The UCU is calling for a full review, or other form of widespread public discussion of the future of universities.
The post-1992 universities hope the Scottish Government task force will address "continuing bias" in favour of the old institutions. They point out that the eight old universities were given funding increases of 3.8% while the post-1992 universities received average increases of 2%.
When some of the smallest new universities pleaded poverty after last year's Scottish budget and went cap in hand to the government, Fiona Hyslop, the Education Minister, responded with a pledge of £40m of interim funding for the whole sector.
Principals had argued for a £168m increase in funding for 2007/08 and voiced concerns about future investment. In the end they received about £30m as Hyslop pledged £5.24bn to the higher and further education sectors over three years. The Education Minister pinned the blame on financing from Westminster and reminded principals: "We must live within our means."
Yet it is obvious this situation cannot go on. It makes good sense that the government has set up a new task force to look at possible mergers of universities in Scotland. As the government says: "This task force is about radical thinking that can help prepare our higher education sector for the global challenges we face as a country over the next 20 years."
When it comes to universities, big is beautiful. Mergers offer a sensible way to proceed, with more bang for the buck. The merger of Bell College with Paisley University to form the University of the West of Scotland has been heralded as a success and surely provides a template for mergers.
A commonsense approach, transparency and scrutiny of how the funding to small new universities is spent internally, and consultations with staff and a programme of mergers to benefit from economies of scale and consolidate on the good brands in the university sector could mean a better higher education sector, a chance to create more centres of excellence and improve our international profile. Most importantly, we need a more consistent quality of education for our future workforce. We need a university sector that will better serve Scotland and which current and future generations deserve. Kate Smith is a freelance journalist and academic.
