10 May 2004

Changing the landscape for tertiary education and research in Scotland: a brief response

It seems that Jack McConnell, Jim Wallace and Lewis Macdonald spent much of last weekend and the early part of the week playing down concerns about the future of our universities and suggesting that the merger of the Scottish Further Education Funding Council and the Scottish Higher Education Funding Council was simply an exercise in streamlining bureaucracy. The First Minister and his colleagues are powerful advocates of our universities both at home and abroad and we in Dundee have been pleased by their interest and support for our work. They must also know that there are effective working relationships between our universities and the excellent further education colleges in Scotland. Why then would they issue such a long consultation paper that talks about "A Changing Landscape..." when a short draft bill would meet their objectives for merger?

This consultation document comes hard on the heels of the third phase of the higher education review ('The Competitiveness of Higher Education in Scotland') which provided a lot of useful data but failed to set a clear direction for the future funding of our universities. Universities are concerned about policy drift and we want to maintain our distinctiveness which uniquely combines higher learning and research. The new taxonomy for higher and further education set out in the latest consultation document - Specified Tertiary Education Providers (or STEPS) - is risible but more important it will be confusing to prospective students at home and abroad and to the top class academics and researchers whom we strive to attract and retain in Scotland.

The merger of the Higher and Further Education Councils is neither here nor there - organisational change is a means to an end. The focus should be on ensuring excellence in learning and teaching and promoting internationally competitive standards of research and scholarship. This is a long game that transcends political and bureaucratic expediency. There is a strong association between the principles of autonomy and academic freedom and the idea of a university. The importance of all three in providing the necessary conditions for higher learning and research to blossom must not be underestimated. This means that our universities must not be stifled by detailed control from central government or their agencies. The organisation, academic policy, choice of students, syllabus and pattern of teaching and study in our universities is best left to the experts.

Ministers should not take a sledgehammer to crack a nut. They could simply merge the funding councils and let us get on with the job of providing higher and further education that aims to compete with the best in the world and that delivers huge economic, social and cultural benefits for twenty-first century Scotland.

Alan Langlands, Principal and Vice Chancellor, University of Dundee

By Angela Durcan, Press Officer 01382 344768, out of hours: 07968298585, a.durcan@dundee.ac.uk