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A NEAR £30 million cut to teaching and pensions budgets is a “slap in the face” for Scottish universities, says the UCU.
In what the Scottish Funding Council’s chief executive Karen Watt called a “particularly challenging funding round,” £4.8m in pension funding and £28.5m in teaching budgets will be slashed.
The decision was met with frustration by university management and workers alike.
Responding on behalf of Universities Scotland, Professor Iain Gillespie argued “there is no way that this trajectory of public funding in university teaching is sustainable,” while UCU’s Mary Senior said the package “would cause real hardship.”
She said: “UCU had asked the higher education minister to support post-92 [former polytechnic] universities with increasing pension costs.
“But instead, the pension contribution fund for post-92 institutions is being removed altogether.
“This is a slap in the face for post-92 universities and the vital widening access work they do.
“With several Scottish universities currently looking to cut jobs, the Scottish government and Scottish Funding Council need to be doing more to protect Scottish higher education.”
The Scottish government said it will continue to invest over £1 billion on teaching and research.
