Staff and students lash out at unrepresentative education taskforce

The final report of the Joint Future Thinking Taskforce on university funding has met with widespread condemnation from students and staff across Scotland.

Following the interim report published this summer, student associations and the University and College union (UCU) of Scotland lobbied the government for representation in the Taskforce. There was also concern that the Taskforce would merely redistribute current funding rather than addressing the real need for increased levels of investment in the sector.

But with the publication of the taskforce's final findings, the University and College Union (UCU) of Scotland, which represents staff and academics, claims that the taskforce has made a mockery of the interim report's six-month consultation process. Only one minor change has been made: namely that respondents' comments were noted in and appendix.

Responding to the final report, UCU Scotland president Terry Brotherstone said: “The government, despite Fiona Hyslop's personal assurances that the views of staff and students were vital to policy-making, has embarked on a course that excludes the real representatives of the sector and produced a report that reduces our concerns for academic freedom, cultural democracy and collegiality to mere appendices."

Mr Brotherstone pointed out the real need for more investment in the university sector: “What goes on in universities cannot offer government quick fixes, but not to nurture our universities can contribute mightily to medium term national and social decline. They require stable funding and strategic planning. Instead we are offered tinkering and re-branding of funding streams but no commitment to invest in the most important sector for Scotland's economic and social viability.”

Despite delivering a 2.9 per cent real terms increase in investment for universities across the spending review period, and an additional £70 million since the spending review was published, Scotland still falls well short of average per capita investment on higher education in western countries.

Adam Ramsay, president of the Edinburgh University Students Association (EUSA) told The Journal: “We were promised a visionary report into the future of higher education in Scotland. Instead we've ended up with a pointless waste of time that plays around at the edges. The Scottish government robbed higher education of the money it needs. It then spent months writing a report into how to allocate the little funding it has promised.

"This failure to invest is little more than barbaric anti-intellectualism, and is damaging to the future prospects of Scotland. It's time for the parliament to stand up for education.”

Mr Ramsay has been fronting a campaign encouraging students to sign and send postcards to local MSPs petitioning for greater investment in higher education.

A government spokesperson said that the report offered opportunities which supported the delivery of the government’s priorities as well as those of every university. They said: “We are also creating a tripartite advisory group whose remit will include advising the cabinet secretary on the level of public investment required in learning and teaching, research and knowledge exchange activities to maintain broad overall comparability with the rest of the UK.”

The higher education taskforce, set up to consider the future of higher education, consisted of ministers, civil servants, principals and a member of the Scottish funding council. The bulk of the higher education sector, the staff and students, were not represented.