12 March 2004
Scottish universities have urged the Executive to provide £102m of annual funding to enable them to undertake new activities and compete with their counterparts in England and abroad.
Universities Scotland's bid for resources follows the publication of a review by a steering group on the potential impact of top-up fees in England. The report on the review reached no conclusions on the funding gap that could arise.
In a submission to the Scottish Executive Spending Review, Universities Scotland said that it needed £102m to deal with international competition and boost the Scottish economy.
This funding would include £40m to help Scottish research 'compete with the rest of the UK, and to enable the best to compete on the world stage'.
A sum of £12m would be earmarked to help Scotland improve its competitiveness by developing commercial opportunities from research, while a further £40m would be used to help reverse the squeeze on the money used to teach students.
A further £10m was requested to ensure all students had an equal chance of succeeding at university irrespective of their family background. In addition, Universities Scotland wants £54m 'to deal with the neglected problem of staff pay'.
The Executive's review identified £430m of outstanding repairs and the universities believe there should be a one-off public purse contribution of £230m towards capital investment.
Professor Bill Stevely, Universities Scotland convener, said Scotland's universities needed new investment if they were to remain among the world's great centres of learning.
PFmar2004
