Financial settlement disappoints Scottish universities

Scotland's universities shared a tight budget settlement this week, with institutions that have excelled in research and knowledge transfer benefitting the most, while three of the country's newer universities have seen a marked downturn in their research funding.

The cash from the Scottish Further and Higher Education Funding Council (SFC), announced today, comes against a backdrop of widespread dissatisfaction at the level of funding for higher education in general north of the border. There have been fears that Scotland's institutions could lose out to their English counterparts, who have access to top-up fees for revenue.

Principals at Scotland's 19 institutions had asked for a £168m real terms increase in core funding in last November's Scottish spending review, but have had to make do with £30m. Since then, the SNP-led administration at Holyrood has announced an extra £20m of funding on top of this year's cash.

SFC chief executive Roger McClure acknowledged that the £1102m figure for 2008-2009 was smaller than many would have hoped for.

"The context was a tight spending review settlement and there were concerns this would all be very disappointing," he said. "I think we will find it is not as disappointing as some people thought it was going to be. We think it is quite a positive settlement. It's an increase and it's a steady increase."

Those institutions which have performed well in the highest quality research and in knowledge transfer saw the biggest increases.

The University of St Andrews, for example, saw a 5.5% overall funding increase, with a 9.7% increase in money for research and knowledge transfer.

St Andrews principal and vice-chancellor Dr Brian Lang said he was very pleased with the components of the settlement which, he said, recognised "the crucial importance of research excellence to the Scottish economy and the imperative for this country to remain internationally competitive."

"We hope that this is the start of a trend for Scottish higher education and not a one-off," he added.

Dundee University, meanwhile, saw a 3.2% overall increase, with a 7% increase in research funding.

A spokesman for the university said the figures were what they had expected. "The 7% increase in our research grant, which is quality-related, is particularly pleasing as it augments the significant increases we have achieved in competitive research income from other funding bodies."

The biggest beneficiary was the University of the Highlands and Islands Millennium Institute, which saw an overall funding increase of 6.1%. The SFC said this was due to targeted funding for health-related courses in rural areas, an increase in part-time places at the institution, and a 33% increase in grants for research and knowledge transfer.

The University of Abertay Dundee, Napier University and Robert Gordon University saw the smallest increases. Abertay's budget rose by just 1.3%, but their funding for research dropped by more than 15%, and the SFC said it was talking to the institution to see whether this was due to the university's own actions or the result of the metrics used to determine funding share. A review of the metrics is currently underway.

Abertay principal Professor Bernard King said the metrics used to determine funding took no account of the university's leading role in developing computer games technology. Last year, a team of students from Abertay won a BAFTA for a game they had devised. Professor King said the SFC had been advised in a report it commissioned from the Royal Society of Edinburgh that it needed to look at strategic research development funding for creative industry research.

Robert Gordon University saw a 10% decrease in its research funding and Napier University saw an 8.7% decline.

The total funding package included £280m for research and knowledge transfer, an increase of 6.2% on the previous year; £690m for teaching, which the SFC said would allow the level of funding to be maintained in real terms; and £87m for capital funding.

Roger McClure said the increase in monies for research and knowledge transfer was significant.

"It is consistent with government policy of supporting basic research and knowledge transfer. That's very good news at a time when there may be concerns about the competitiveness of Scottish institutions with fees coming through in England. What the government has been able to do is produce funding to enable us to make substantial uplift. That is very important for our big research institutions, the ones competing with those in England and around the world."