Created on: 31 Aug 2026
The report published last week from the Future Framework for the Sustainability and Success of Scotland’s Universities is a clear red flag for the Scottish Government, with the report not only highlighting the chronic public underfunding of Higher Education Institutions across the country, but the precarity of the sectors finances being reliant on a declining international student population and decreasing trend in alternative income streams.
Garry Ross, EIS National Officer for Higher Education commented “This report highlights the increasingly difficult financial situation Scotland’s universities find themselves in, not only due to increasing cost pressures but a marked decrease in funding and income. Universities in Scotland are world-renowned for the high quality education they deliver to their students alongside the cutting-edge research they carry out, which benefits so many sectors and society in general. Without adequate and sustainable funding, the worldwide reputation of Scottish Higher Education will be irreparably damaged and its ability to continue having a positive impact on Scotland’s economy and society severely diminished.”
Continuing, Mr Ross said, “The reported funding gap in Scottish HE for 2023/24 is £200M. However, the report clearly shows a publicly funded teaching gap of £288M, which is likely to be felt more acutely in modern universities whose student cohorts consist mainly of Scottish-domiciled students and who do not recruit nearly as many international students as ancient and chartered institutions. Many of the modern universities in Scotland are also at the forefront of the widening access and participation agenda, and so a gap in publicly funded teaching is more likely to have an impact on students coming from deprived areas.”
Mr Ross added, “The EIS also shares concerns expressed in the report, that the size of the current funding gap could be larger given the fall in international student admissions over the last few years and the data used in the report stops at 2023/24. The sector urgently needs additional funding to ensure it does not find itself in a position it cannot recover from.”
Speaking on the impact this has had on staff in the sector, Mr Ross said, “There is no doubt that university staff are bearing the burden of the financial situation in HE. Widespread job cuts, increasing workload and suppressed pay can be attributed to the unsustainable funding model that universities are operating in and that cannot continue. Staff have failed to receive an adequate cost of living increase in over a decade, even when a number of institutions were banking large surpluses. They simply had below inflationary pay uplifts imposed on them which fundamentally undermines the professional jobs that they do and impacts on their quality of life. It’s clear from the report that the continued suppression of staff pay has almost certainly ensured that the funding gap is not substantially larger than what has been reported, given that staff costs make up 49% of the sectors overall spend each year. Staff have endured this long enough and will no longer stand to be seen as disposable resources to be discarded in order to balance the books.”