HE Scotland's Friday Round-Up (04/09/2009)

Notable stories appearing on the HE Scotland Twitter feed in the last seven days included...

In policy and funding news:

• On Sunday Liberal Democrat spokesperson Margaret Smith published figures obtained under Freedom of Information which indicated the "true extent of student hardship in Scotland". The media release was picked up in later that day by Labour spokesperson Claire Baker and, on Monday, in both The Herald and The Scotsman. Later in the week, The Scotsman ran a further piece indicating that the opposition parties were urging the government to "help lift poor students out of hardship". Claire Baker kept us informed via Twitter, announcing Labour's shared position with the Lib Dems on the issue, as well as their "productive meeting" to discuss the topic with Cabinet Secretary Fiona Hyslop.
• UK Visa regulations and their impact on the higher education sector made the news again with The Guardian announcing that International students may spurn the UK because of new visa rules and the University of Warwick's Registrar describing the regulation as "ludicrous heavy-handed package of regulation that risks havoc in international student recruitment" in a Times Higher Education piece.
• The prospective University of the Highlands and Islands (UHI) kept policymakers on their toes this week. The network found itself under pressure in Inverness about a possible Inverness College move. The Inverness Courier reported on calls for an inquiry into 'pressure' being applied to the College as the decision on the College's potential move to a
  proposed Beechwood site was delayed again. UHI also chose to use the findings of a study of youth migration in the Highlands as an opportunity to call for additional funded places from the Scottish Funding Council, with The BBC covering the news:
• More generally, the sector appeared to be gripped by a mood of change with the new semester looming just around the corner. Significant changes saw Professor Steve Chapman take over as Principal at Heriot Watt , Dundee's Abertay University announce Lord Cullen as its new Chancellor; and both Abertay and Edinburgh Napier universities made senior appointments. Elsewhere, the University of Aberdeen announced changes intended to take it into the world's top 100 universities and construction of the University of the West of Scotland’s new £70 million campus got underway in Ayr.

In student news:

• There was better news for students this week as a HESA media release outlined some positive statistics on recent graduate career progress. UCU Scotland welcomed the figures and Labour Spokesperson Claire Baker MSP tweeted to note that 86.9% were satisfied with careers to date & 88.9% were employed. Whilst The Times chose to report the news positively The Guardian went with "Graduates struggle to find full-time jobs".
• Some graduates also found themselves with a bit more money in their pocket as negative interest rates meant they were owed money by the Student Loans company or there was no interest on their loans. Both The Scotsman and The Guardian ran pieces on the issue.
• In other student news, The Scotsman ran a piece considering the pros & cons of studying at your local university; a student-run charity at Edinburgh University was awarded £2,000 by BBC Children in Need; Edinburgh College of Art students' work found itself, quite literally, in the shop window; and Scotland's first Polish Student President took up office at Edinburgh Napier University.

In research news:

• The Times Higher Education magazine published Research Council funding statistics showing that, amongst Scottish institutions, Edinburgh and Glasgow universities take the lion's share of grants whilst the University of Strathclyde leads in terms of success rate. Overall, the stats showed that increased competition across the UK as a while means that the chance chances of a research grant application being successful were all-time low, something about which the RCUK chair was reported to be 'awfully concerned':
• Edinburgh University researchers' findings called into question the wisdom of taking an aspirin everyday and the news was reported globally. The extensive media coverage included pieces in The Times and The Herald.
• St Andrews University researchers achieved similar media ubiquity with a press release announcing that girls at single-sex schools are more attracted to feminine looking boys. The BBC and The Scotsman were just two of the many outlets to pick this up.
• The biology sector in the capital received a boost with the announcement of a major initiative in synthetic biology at Heriot-Watt University and a significant appointment at Edinburgh University' BioQuarter, where Simon Best is to lead commercialisation activity.

In our competition for the best sector media release title, this week's competition was declared a dead heat between the University of Dundee's:

• The Face of Evil reconstructed in Dundee

and St Andrews University's:

• Lecture proves levitation isn't just science fiction

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10,000 additional places in England - will Scotland follow Mandelson's lead?

Peter Mandelson yesterday announced an additional 10,000 places for full-time undergraduate students studying at English universities this autumn. A "good news" announcement, it would seem, particularly as it hasn't required additional cash, but has been financed by "re-prioritising existing budgets." The reaction of the sector, however, makes very clear that the devil is most definitely in the detail.

A BBC article described the additional places as "part-funded: universities will get students' tuition fees but not grants for teaching and other support." It's this "part-funding" that is the key to understanding the sector's less than ecstatic reaction. The fact that these places are to be focused on science, technology and maths (STEM) subjects, will mean the "part-funding" received in student fees will, in most cases, very definitely be the smaller part: the HEFCE grant funding universities would normally receive for many STEM students is significantly greater than the £3,145 tuition fee the students themselves pay. Under yesterday's announcement English universities will miss out on this larger element of their normal income per student and only receive the annual fees paid directly by the student for the duration of their course.

This absence of the larger slice of the funding per student, plus the need to still find funds to offer bursaries to many taking up these extra places, is what lies behind the lack of enthusiasm for Lord Mandelson's announcement. Whilst Million+ welcomed the news as a campaign victory, they must surely have hoped for more than this in making the sector's case. The Russell Group, the 1994 Group and the UCU were all far less up-beat and variously voiced concerns about the impact education "on the cheap" might have on the quality of the student experience, on staff workloads and on the long term financial health of universities. Student Groups were similar non-plussed,. The NUS noted that "thousands of people who have applied to study non-STEM subjects are still going to be without a place in the summer" and expressed disappointment that the student loan “repayment holiday” will be reduced to two years as part of the re-prioritisation to find funding for these extra places.

But what might this announcement mean for Scotland? Back in February, UCU called for additional funding for the Scottish higher education sector in recognition of the increased numbers of university applicants resulting from the economic downturn. Can we now expect Fiona Hyslop to accede to the Union's demands and follow Lord Mandelson's lead?

Last month, the Scottish Government announced investment of £16.1 million in places at Scotland's Colleges, along with a further £12 million investment to improve the institution's estates infrastructure. In light of this, it might be that the Scottish Government has made its move, and chosen to spend its money to alleviate demand caused by the downturn by supporting Scotland's colleges, rather than its universities.

However, even though the additional places in England are cash-neutral, some additional funding may yet come the way of the Scottish Government via the Barnett formula which is used to allocate funding to the devolved nations. If this is the case, then Universities Scotland will almost certainly look to lay claim to any such funds in order to assist the sector with the increased level of undergraduate applications. However, as was the case in England, any available funds may have to be stretched much more thinly than institutions might like if the government is to be able to announce an additional number of places which looks newsworthy and appears to go a reasonable way towards meeting the significantly increased demand.

Scottish Knowledge Exchange: Strong Performance, But Funding Reforms Anticipated

Scottish universities performed well in figures released yesterday in the HE Business & Communication Interaction (HE-BCI) Survey summary results for Scottish universities. Despite a decline in income under the "regeneration" and "IP income" headings (not to mention the absence of data from one institution), Scottish institutions increased their total relevant income by some 7% in 2007-08. This increase of £19.1M delivered an overall Scottish total of £341.4m and a 4% real terms growth rate.

The Scottish rate of growth is not only slightly ahead of the rest of the UK, but comparative data shows that Scotland outperforming comparators across a range of areas. The statistics indicate that Scotland's universities make considerably more patent applications per million of population than those in Canada and the rest of the UK. Similarly, spin offs from Scottish HEIs have, on average, a higher turnover than those from the rest of the UK and Scotland's universities have consistently achieved a higher rate of spin-offs per million of population than their peers in Canada, the rest of the UK and the USA.

Whilst this strong performance may be cause for celebration, the funding stream used to incentivise knowledge exchange in Scotland looks set to change. Writing in November last year, Cabinet Secretary for Education & Lifelong Learning, Fiona Hyslop, asked that the Funding Council (SFC) "ensure that Scotland increases the demand side ‘pull’ for new knowledge created in universities and delivers knowledge into the Scottish economy which creates additional wealth." As a result of this direction, the SFC has stated that it plans to review the metrics used for the allocation of the £21m Knowledge Transfer Grant (KTG) during 2009.

The KTG funding was included in the SFC's new 'Horizon Fund for Universities' the details of which were announced as part of a major overhaul of the SFC's approach to funding in March. The new Fund is specifically intended to drive the government's policy priorities and the inclusion of KTG within this stream, coupled with the emphasis the November letter placed on SME's and the need to address demand, suggests that the consultation may propose some radical reforms.

Whether or not radical reform is proposed, the forthcoming consultation is certain to be particularly closely scrutinsed in the universities of Glasgow, Dundee, Strathclyde, Edinburgh and Aberdeen. The HE-BCI survey shows these five institutions account for some 82% of the total value of "contract research" income in the Scottish sector. The same five will also together share some £14.64m, or 70%, of the current KTG grant for 2009-10.