The Scottish Secretary has “his fingers in his ears” over Aberdeen University’s financial problems, it was claimed today.
The 525-year-old institution announced it will make redundancies as part of “immediate steps” to cut costs which have surged by at least £4.7 million.
The rise was blamed on Labour’s hike to employer National Insurance contributions (NICs), previous staff pay awards and inflation.
During Scottish Questions at Westminster, Labour’s Ian Murray did not defend the impact of his government’s policy, which has been estimated as costing an extra £45m for all Scotland’s universities.
His opposite number Andrew Bowie also took a swipe at the SNP’s financing model for Scottish universities, which put a cap on the number of domestic students who can attend.
The West Aberdeenshire and Kincardine MP said:
“Whilst not quite a graduate of Aberdeen University, the Secretary of State is like me a beneficiary of a Scottish university education.
“Scotland has some of the finest and most respected higher education establishments in the world.
“But as we have seen last week at Aberdeen, in warnings from the University of Edinburgh and most starkly at the University of Dundee where over 600 jobs are being shed to make emergency savings, the current funding model overseen by the SNP is failing our institutions and our young people.
“On that I know we agree. But will he also acknowledge the devastating impact on Scottish university budgets of his own government’s NIC increase – adding £45m to their salary bills, or will he continue to defend this job-killing, anti-growth tax on workers?”
Ian Murray did not mention Aberdeen University in his answer.
He said: “It’s quite clear from the University of Edinburgh, in terms of their principal Peter Mathieson, that the problems at University of Edinburgh that they’re having to deal with is (because) of underfunding of students from Scotland.”
Aberdeen University bosses said it will stop almost all staff recruitment and revisit voluntary redundancy and early retirement bids from staff.
Later, Mr Bowie added:
“The Secretary of State won’t listen to universities, or anyone else, about a disastrous policy which will likely cause redundancies into the thousands.
“He has his fingers in his ears and that doesn’t bode well for the health of higher education in Scotland.”
