Scots reveal future fears

The Association of University Teachers Scotland has warned Scottish education minister Helen Liddell that higher education could suffer under a Scottish parliament because of "misleading claims" about its funding.

The AUTS had its first meeting with the new minister this week. The union is alarmed that the comprehensive spending review will set the baseline for the Scottish parliament since it questions government figures of an extra Pounds 230 million for higher education.

The union says the increase is offset by the change to Pounds 1,000 fees per student, compared with the previous average of Pounds 1,200. The "headline figures" of extra funds were based on an artificially low Scottish Higher Education Funding Council resources following a one-off transfer of funds from SHEFC to the Student Awards Agency for Scotland. The union calculates the increase over the next three years as Pounds 113 million.

David Bleiman, AUTS assistant general secretary, said the "misleading claim" of Pounds 230 million was "most unhelpful when the higher education sector has to make its case among other competing priorities for the attention of the Scottish parliament".

A Scottish Office spokesman said Mrs Liddell had pointed out that the total amount of the Scottish block would remain the same under the new parliament. While parliament would determine future spending, increased funding for education would have to come from elsewhere.

The AUTS praised the "substantial real increase" in research funding, which includes an extra Pounds 23 million over the next three years for research designed to boost the Scottish economy.

It also argued that the new three-year funding horizon gave universities a much better ability to plan ahead and removed the excuse for "casualisation" of staff through fixed-term contracts.