Meeting of the Parliament 08 March 2016
I confess that I am a wee bit confused by that intervention so I will pass.
The bill will give staff, students and trade unions a real voice and a real say in the future of the universities in which they learn, teach and work. It is only right that public institutions that receive millions of pounds from the taxpayer every year are run in a way that is open, democratic and transparent. As I said during the stage 1 debate, when we look at some of the issues that have hit the headlines recently, such as job losses and senior management pay, it is easy to see why that is necessary.
The decisions that governing boards make would undoubtedly be better if they better reflected the diversity of the student and staff populations but, right now, 65 per cent of governing board members are men, while women and other groups continue to be seriously underrepresented.
Research published today by the University and College Union—“Holding down women’s pay”—shows that four Scottish universities are paying their female employees at significantly lower rates than they pay men. At the University of the Highlands and Islands, female lecturers are paid £18,000 a year less than their male colleagues. At the University of St Andrews in Fife, women lecturers are paid £8,699 a year less than their male counterparts. It is outrageous that, almost 50 years after the Equal Pay Act 1970, such staggering pay inequality still exists in Scotland’s universities. Once more, that highlights why improving transparency and accountability in the sector is so important.
In that respect, I am disappointed that the cabinet secretary opposed my amendment to introduce quotas on university boards. It is unacceptable that, while women make up more than half the student and staff population, only a third of governing board members are women. Although we have seen progress, the fact remains that there is much more to do to achieve gender parity in our universities.
This is a real missed opportunity, and the Government’s approach on it seems out of step with the commitments of the cabinet secretary and the First Minister to support the 50:50 campaign. Having more women on the governing boards of universities would not in itself address the pay gap that was set out in the report that I mentioned, but I am confident that it would lead to more urgency in addressing the situation.
I am disappointed, too, that the Scottish Government did not accept Alison Johnstone’s and Mark Griffin’s amendments on regulating pay for senior managers. Greater scrutiny alone is not enough to tackle the unreasonable pay increases that we have seen at the top of the scale. It cannot be right that university principals on three-figure salaries are taking inflation-busting pay increases while their staff are told to accept less than inflation, year in, year out, and are forced to take strike action just to get a basic 2 per cent increase.
The Higher Education Governance (Scotland) Bill is not perfect and could have been improved in many ways. However, for all its flaws, it provides a greater chance to improve university governance for the better. I hope that, if the bill is passed, it will make a real difference to university students and staff. I hope, too, that we can revisit the debate in the next session of Parliament so that we can take real steps to tackle the issues of diversity in Scotland’s universities and ensure that they are governed better in future.