News digest
News digest
In the news - weekly summary 1 - 7 March 2010
SFC mentions
Call to scrap council tax for HN students - students who study college courses such as HNC and HNDs to develop their skills before moving into the second year of a degree course are being unfairly penalised because they have to pay council tax, Scottish Labour spokeswoman Claire Baker said. Students who use "articulation" routes, ie developing their skills on vocational courses to gain entry to degree courses because they don't have the required highers, should have the council tax exemptions extended to cover them. SFC have said that an expansion of articulation is "likely to be a key way to widen access to degree-level education".
The Herald
Union warn against potential "supercollege" redundancies - the Educational Institute of Scotland (EIS) and Further Education Lecturers' Association have said that its members would campaign against the creation of the new City of Glasgow College if some issues, such as potential redundancies, are not addressed. The unions are also concerned about the educational rationale for the new college and terms and conditions for staff. EIS is seeking a guarantee from the board that there will be no compulsory redundancies. City of Glasgow College will be formed from the merger of Central, Metropolitan and Nautical colleges, which SFC believes will be more efficient and allow better course planning.
The Herald, Glasgow Evening Times
Teacher training "should cut ties with government funding" - Stirling University's head of education, Richard Edwards, said education departments should become less about supplying teachers for schools and diversify more into professional education more widely as well as research. Stirling University's education department is employing six new staff despite losing student places, and therefore funding, to try to gain extra research funding. Mr Edwards said: "We are looking forward to becoming less dependent on the Scottish Funding Council."
The Scotsman
Call for review of higher education - Conservative MSP Margaret Mitchell has called for an independent review of higher education, which is "now more crucial than ever after a report by the Scottish Funding Council has concluded that Labour's recession will continue to have hugely adverse effects on Scotland's universities." Ms Mitchell criticised the cutting of teacher training places and voiced concerns over the 31.2 per cent rise in applications, which may lead to penalties from SFC if universities over-recruit.
Airdrie & Coatbridge Advertiser
College gender gap closing - figures from SFC show that men made up 45 per cent of the Scottish college student population in 2008-09, an increase of eight per cent over eight years. Female students rose by four per cent over the same period. People from ethnic minorities also make up 5.3 per cent of the college population, despite making up only 2 per cent of the national population.
Courier & Advertiser
Environmental technologies action plan launched - the Scottish Environment Protection Agency (SEPA), Highlands and Islands Enterprise and SFC are working on the Environmental and Clean Technologies Action Plan to try to improve support for sustainable businesses not directly involved with renewable energy. The plan, launched by environment minister Roseanna Cunningham in September last year, will focus on five areas: water and waste water treatment; recovery and recycling; environmental monitoring and innovation; and building technologies and sustainable transport. Ms Cunningham said it was important to have bodies like SEPA and Scottish Enterprise on board: "It's really important that the Scottish Funding Council is involved as well because a lot of this is also about skills."
Holyrood
Teacher training places cut - an SFC circular confirmed teacher training numbers will be cut by over 1500 this year. NUS have raised concerns over the sustainability of teacher training departments in Scottish universities.
Holyrood
Horizon Fund comes under fire - a new committee of six members set up by SFC to administer the Horizon Fund has come under criticism from lecturers' leaders and university principals for lacking scrutiny.
Holyrood
Expansion in university places "should be approached with care" - last year the Scottish Government provided £8.6 million to fund an additional 3,000 students but any further expansion in places this year, in the face of a 31 per cent increase in university applications, "must be approached with care, with a long-term perspective" as training people for four years who then can't find graduate employment is an inefficient use of public funds, personal finances and time. SFC imposes fines on institutions which exceed their limit of student places. Admitting unfunded students would compromise academic quality and student experience, warned Universities Scotland.
Hoyrood
Postgraduate support funding axed - the Scottish Government has scrapped the £3 million maintenance allowance for postgraduate students, which was means-tested and helped disadvantaged students with costs. Last year 1,500 students benefitted from it. The Postgraduate Student Allowance has two funding streams for maintenance and tuition fees - the Government argues that by scrapping the maintenance allowance it can fund more students' tuition fees, allowing more people to go on to postgraduate education. SFC is also looking at withdrawing the Wider Access Retention Premium, which helps prevent disadvantaged students from dropping out, from four universities - St Andrews, Edinburgh, Aberdeen and Heriot-Watt.
The Times
New campus Glasgow to be part of "heat network" - research and development consultants Archial Sustainable Futures has been appointed to the City of Glasgow College project to explore the possibility of integrating the new campus with a new "heat network" in the city. Strathclyde University is working on a feasibility study for the city-wide network, where large energy users in the city would interconnect to share surplus energy. Archial will also measure the new campus using the BREEAM (Building Research Establishment Environmental Assessment Method). The project, which is to be funded by SFC in partnership with the three colleges - Central, Metropolitan and Nautical - will be the first major construction in Scotland's education sector to be delivered within the context of the new Climate Change Scotland Act.
Business 7
Scottish Drama Training Network launched - Cabinet Secretary for Education Michael Russell launched the Scottish Drama Training Network, funded by SFC, at the Hub in Edinburgh with students from the Royal Scottish Academy of Music and Drama (RSAMD), Edinburgh Napier and Queen Margaret universities.
The Herald, Courier & Advertiser, Edinburgh Evening News
Dundee University braced for "hard decisions" - the University's principal Professor Pete Downes has warned that it was "entirely unclear" what funding would be available to the higher education sector beyond spring 2011 following the Scottish Government's announcement of increased funds, he said: "However, now is not the time for complacency as that budget only covers the period to April 2011 and the Scottish Funding Council has not yet provided universities with their funding allocations for 2010/11." He warned that institutions will succeed only if they are able to take "hard decisions" about the quality of their learning, teaching and research outputs and of the support services they provide.
Dundee Evening Telegraph
Workforce development - the Alliance of Sector Skills Councils in Scotland has submitted a report calling for a more detailed understanding of the role workforce and skills development has to play in boosting Scotland's productivity to create the best fit between supply and demand to SFC and Skills Development Scotland Skills Committee's Workforce Development Sub-Group as part of the process to develop Scotland's first Workforce Development Strategy.
Scottish Business Insider
Education Secretary calls for debate on higher education - in Michael Russell's first major speech on higher education he ruled out the introduction of tuition fees and called for a discussion with students, university principals and lecturers' unions about the "difficult funding decisions" in the future, although he ruled out a full independent inquiry into university funding in the immediate future. SFC recently published a review of the financial situation of universities, which pointed to risks such as the economic downturn, a lower return on investments and increased pressure on student support funds.
Sunday Herald
Scottish Government funding for colleges and universities - a letter from education secretary Michael Russell to SFC confirms funding of £692.7 million for colleges and £1.076 billion for universities in the 2010/11 Scottish budget. Mr Russell has said he wants priority given to 16-24 year olds wanting to go to college, school-college activities, student support, the role of rural colleges in helping small businesses, and the training element of the young persons' guarantee. SFC will notify the individual institutions of their share of the funding on 25 March for universities and 16 April for colleges.
Times Educational Supplement Scotland
Universities
St Andrews' new medical building completed - St Andrews University's new £32 million medical school has been officially handed over and will open to students in September. The building is linked to the University's physics and astronomy department by a bridge and is the first in the UK to have integrated research facilities with other sciences including physics, chemistry, biology and psychology to allow unrestricted collaboration.
Courier & Advertiser, The Herald
New senior posts at Stirling University - as part of an investment and expansion in teaching and research the University is to create six new senior positions - a chair in education and five senior academic posts.
Allan Water News
Glasgow Caledonian considers major restructure - the University is considering a major restructuring of its academic faculties which proposes to reduce the current six schools to three. No details have been released, however it is understood that the three schools would be business, incorporating the business, law and social sciences faculties; science and engineering, incorporating building, environment, engineering, computing and life sciences; and a health school. It is thought the proposals are to encourage cross-curricular projects among specialist academics.
The Herald, Glasgow Evening Times
Edinburgh University staff on redundancy alert - the University has written to all permanent staff in the education faculty to warn that they are at risk of redundancy. This follows the announcement from the Scottish Government of cuts to the number of teacher training places in Scotland. Lecturers and students protested outside the Moray House teaching faculty. University and College Union (UCU) blamed the SNP's class-size commitment for the cuts and said it hoped to avoid compulsory redundancies through the consultation process.
The Scotsman, The Herald
Colleges
Elmwood College cuts opening hours - due to a fall in demand for its part-time courses in favour of full-time courses in the economic recession, the College is to condense its opening hours into four evenings instead of five and will no longer run classes on Saturday mornings.
Courier & Advertiser
Students
Science action plan - the Scottish Government have launched the Science and Engineering 21 plan to improve the focus on these subjects in schools. Also launched at the same time was Science Graduates for Work, a new Government pilot scheme to help unemployed science graduates find work in the Glasgow and Forth Valley area. The scheme is being run by Forth Valley College and combines college-based work with a placement at one of three life sciences companies in the area. The scheme could be rolled out nationally later.
The Herald, Press and Journal