Committee
Education and Culture Committee 04 October 2011
04 Oct 2011 · S4 · Education and Culture Committee
Item of business
Draft Budget 2012-13 and Spending Review 2011
I will ask about the ministerial advice to the Scottish funding council that it concentrate research funding on institutions that attract funding from elsewhere that matches Scottish Government funding and whether you see a conflict of interest between universities. Are universities seen as being poorer if they cannot attract European or outside research funding?
In the same item of business
The Convener (Stewart Maxwell)
SNP
Good morning and welcome to the seventh meeting of the Education and Culture Committee in session 4. As usual, I remind members to switch off mobile phones a...
Claire Baker (Mid Scotland and Fife) (Lab)
Lab
I will ask a few questions about the funding gap. The spending review settlement for universities has been welcomed, although it is worth noting that in the ...
Professor Seamus McDaid (University of the West of Scotland)
As chair of the efficiencies task force, I should answer that, or at least start to answer it. We have identified that universities are relatively efficient ...
Claire Baker
Lab
I will move on to a slightly more contentious issue. Over the past few years, we have seen lecturers lose their jobs and pay freezes within the sector, but t...
Alastair Sim (Universities Scotland)
I will comment on the generality of the UCU figures and my members will want to comment on what is happening at senior management level in their institutions...
Professor McDaid
In 2005, the University of the West of Scotland did not exist. There were two institutions—Bell College and the University of Paisley. The Bell College dimen...
Claire Baker
Lab
There has been a continuing concern among parliamentarians in recent years about the rate at which principals’ salaries have increased. There have been oppor...
Alastair Sim
I will respond to that at the aggregate level. From 2009-10 to 2010-11, the increase in remuneration for the top management team in universities was 0.7 per ...
Sir Timothy O’Shea (University of Edinburgh)
Claire Baker is entirely right: with the pressure on public sector spending, it is important for senior staff in universities to show leadership. For a third...
Professor Ferdinand von Prondzynski (Robert Gordon University)
I will add a word for Robert Gordon University. Alastair Sim made the main point that the UCU figures cover a range of positions that we do not regard as bei...
Claire Baker
Lab
I will move on to other elements that have been identified to meet the funding gap. The National Union of Students Scotland and the UCU, among others, have c...
Sir Timothy O’Shea
You ask a good question. The honest answer is that it is extremely hard for any head of an institution in any part of the UK to predict what will happen in t...
Professor McDaid
The effect is very marginal for my institution. Predicting what will happen is important to us, as we are moving to looking at more English, Welsh and Northe...
Claire Baker
Lab
Previously, the Scottish Government proposed a European Union maintenance fee, and I think that it was estimated that it could raise around £22 million a yea...
Alastair Sim
The Scottish Government has been clear on two fronts: first, that it is considering that matter; and secondly, that the proposition is not necessarily straig...
Claire Baker
Lab
So, as you understand it, a European Union maintenance fee is no longer a factor in addressing the funding gap.
Alastair Sim
One certainly cannot rely on it, as the development of a specific proposal is subject to a great deal more investigation. It would have been imprudent to hav...
Ferdinand von Prondzynski
As members may know, I recently came from the Republic of Ireland, where I was head of a university for 10 years. What started out as the student registratio...
Liz Smith (Mid Scotland and Fife) (Con)
Con
I will pick up on a point that Sir Timothy O’Shea made about the modelling that has been done with regard to rest-of-UK students. It is possible—although I h...
Timothy O’Shea
I can speak only for the University of Edinburgh. Obviously, we had a careful discussion of the different funding options in our court, and we were advised b...
Liz Smith
Con
Mr Sim, will the percentage of the funding gap to be made up by rest-of-UK students stay stable in the years ahead?
Alastair Sim
My response has to reflect what members of Universities Scotland are saying—you cannot give an absolute assurance what the numbers will be in future. However...
The Convener
SNP
The University of Edinburgh has made it quite clear that, because it gets 12 applications for every place, there would have to be a substantial change before...
Professor von Prondzynski
Perhaps I can respond on behalf of my own institution, which, numerically, lies somewhere between Timothy O’Shea’s and Seamus McDaid’s institutions. Robert G...
Professor McDaid
We are doing it from an even lower base—it is a bit like that John Cleese sketch with the different height order. Because we have small numbers of students f...
Sir Timothy O’Shea
All universities have large and experienced admissions teams. On the open day that we held the Saturday before last, when we had 9,500 visitors, my colleague...
Marco Biagi (Edinburgh Central) (SNP)
SNP
Claire Baker pointed out some of the responsibilities around efficiency that accompany the quite generous funding settlement. The guidance letter from the
Alastair Sim
I will deal with the issues at a global level, then let panel members exemplify.A lot of what is being said in the letter of grant is a reflection of what we...
Professor McDaid
My university does a lot of work with the college sector as well as with the school sector. We have many students who enter in either second year or third ye...
Professor von Prondzynski
You will appreciate that I have been in the door at RGU for only 10 minutes, so there is a limit to the impact that I could claim to have had, but RGU is rec...