Chamber and committees

We already know that the university sector in Scotland has been hit hard by the COVID-19 pandemic. The situation remains dynamic, evolving as time goes on and the Scottish Funding Council will continue to monitor the position in order to present up-to-date sector information to Scottish Government, universities and the wider public. The most recent analysis (January 2021) suggests that the position is improving, with a forecast operating deficit for universities for Academic Year 2020-21 of round £50m compared to initial analysis in May 2020 of a forecasting operating deficit of between £384m and £651m.

Throughout the pandemic we have worked closely with our universities and their representative body, Universities Scotland, other stakeholders including trade and student unions and through the Further and Higher Education Covid-19 Ministerial Leadership Group, to build an understanding of both the immediate and longer term impact across teaching, research, staff and student issues. We have sought to act quickly and decisively to ensure universities are supported. The result of this is that our Higher institutions will receive over £100 million in additional financial support directly related to Covid from the Scottish Government across the 2019-20 and 2020-21 academic years.

We have also engaged regularly with the Scottish Funding Council and via the review commissioned by the Minster for Further Education, Higher Education and Science, will continue to explore future funding models and options for our university sector that will ensure they are viable and sustainable in the long-term. The outputs of the review will form an important part of the Government’s thinking on the future strategy for tertiary education and university research in Scotland as we look to our Universities to be at the heart of recovery, and seek to emerge from this crisis even stronger.