The Scotsman Bulletin Thursday November 07 2024 #Education
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00:00Hello and welcome to this morning's daily video bulletin
00:04for this Thursday.
00:06My name is Dale Miller.
00:07I'm Deputy Editor at The Scotsman.
00:10I'm joined by our Education Correspondent, Callum Ross.
00:14Callum, before we get into all things education,
00:17it's hard to avoid the figure that is Donald Trump.
00:20He was on the front page of today's Scotsman.
00:23Again, slightly what may become an iconic image
00:27of him pointing down the camera.
00:30A lot of mixed feelings, I think, across the UK
00:32and Scotland about him being re-elected
00:35and coming back for another term,
00:38confirmed that he had won the US presidential election.
00:42There's full coverage across The Scotsman's side
00:45about not just that result, but the fallout,
00:47and there will be ongoing fallout
00:49over coming days and weeks around this.
00:51And excellent pieces from Christine Jardine
00:55and also Jane Bradley,
00:57looking at the implications of his election
01:00and why the US didn't once again elect a female president,
01:04but also some extensive coverage from Martin McLaughlin,
01:07including whether we may see a presidential visit
01:10from Donald Trump to Scotland as early as next summer.
01:14You can read all that at scotsman.com.
01:17Callum, in amongst this all, there was other news happening,
01:22although it certainly hasn't felt like it
01:23over the past 24 hours.
01:25But on the education front, we heard confirmation,
01:29and you wrote this story about more cuts
01:31to the Scottish University.
01:32Talk us through it.
01:34That's right, Dale.
01:35Concerning news, really,
01:36for staff at Robert Gordon University in Aberdeen.
01:41They were told yesterday at a big staff meeting
01:44that the university is now looking
01:46for a further 135 redundancies.
01:51That's on top of 130 staff
01:54who've already left in the last few months
01:56under voluntary severance schemes.
02:00The principal there, Steve Olivier,
02:02he said that this was needed
02:04to ensure the long-term viability of the university,
02:09which is an interesting word.
02:13I mean, the university insists it's hoping
02:16that most of these staff will leave
02:17under voluntary severance schemes
02:20and that compulsory redundancies won't be needed,
02:23but they don't seem to be ruling out compulsory redundancies.
02:28If that was to happen,
02:29I'd expect a response from the unions.
02:32I wouldn't be surprised if we saw some kind of ballot
02:35for industrial action pretty soon.
02:38So, yeah, I mean, it's just the kind of latest worrying sign
02:41about the impact of financial pressures
02:45in the higher education sector.
02:47We've been reporting regularly at the Scotsman
02:50on the big drop in numbers of international students
02:54in the last year or so,
02:56predicted to continue as particularly postgraduate students
03:00who pay high fees,
03:01and that's come at the same time
03:03as there's been an actual cut in funding
03:05from the Scottish government
03:06after years of real-terms cuts.
03:11Also came the announcement at RGU yesterday,
03:13just came a day after we were reporting
03:15that the umbrella body for universities,
03:18Universities Scotland had kind of issued a fresh plea
03:20for a new kind of funding situation
03:24for Scottish universities.
03:26That came after it was announced on Monday
03:28that the English universities
03:30would be able to charge slightly more in tuition fees
03:34after the rate had been frozen since 2017.
03:39So Universities Scotland are kind of pointing out
03:41that there's just gonna be an even wider gulf
03:45between the amount spent per student
03:48between English universities and Scottish universities.
03:51I think at the last count,
03:52it was a 21% difference that was calculated
03:56by the Institute for Fiscal Studies last year.
04:00Callum, do you,
04:01up against the Robert Gordon University announcement
04:05with a Scottish budget coming up in December,
04:07and we know some tightening of the funding
04:10coming to universities here in Scotland,
04:12and contrasting that with, I guess,
04:15the decision that's been taken south of the border.
04:17Do you think we're there yet in terms of the announcements,
04:20or are you anticipating there will be ongoing funding pressure
04:25on Scottish universities over coming weeks and months?
04:28Well, I, you might remember, Dale,
04:31I did an interview with Graeme Day,
04:33the higher education minister in the summer,
04:36and he basically couldn't rule out further cuts
04:39to colleges and universities,
04:41which would be really, really bad news for them.
04:46I mean, there's even been kind of reports,
04:48suggestions that there could be mergers in the sector
04:51and big kind of downsizing.
04:53We've seen Edinburgh University
04:54talking about restricting spending,
04:57and Aberdeen University,
04:58and their accounts couldn't even guarantee
05:01they would continue as a growing concern this year.
05:05Since then, of course,
05:06we've had the budget from Rachel Reeves last week,
05:09was it, the last couple of weeks,
05:13talk of uplift in Holyrood's budget.
05:16So I think university leaders will be
05:18having their fingers crossed
05:19that they might get a slice of some of that extra funding
05:22that might avert some of the worst consequences,
05:24but that's gonna be a long queue
05:26for people looking for more funding.
05:29I don't know where universities will be in that queue.
05:32There will be a huge queue.
05:34I know we've written a lot about the arts sector
05:37and its troubles funding-wise.
05:40The health service, et cetera, the list does go on.
05:43So who gets the money
05:45and who still comes under pressure for cuts
05:47is one to watch.
05:48You'll be able to read all the latest
05:49about that at scottsman.com.
05:51Just one other story, Callum,
05:53the higher history pass mark dropped
05:57and there was a bit of an explanation about that.
06:00That's right, Dale.
06:01So the Scottish Qualifications Authority, SQA,
06:03Scotland's exam board,
06:05they carried out a review
06:06of the way the higher history course exam
06:08was marked this year.
06:10That followed concerns from teachers and parents
06:12about a big drop in the pass rate.
06:14It went from 65.7% in 20,
06:18no, 65.7% this year,
06:21down 13 percentage points on the previous year.
06:24So quite a big drop.
06:26There was a sort of suggestion
06:27that it might have been a harder paper
06:29or it was marked differently from previous years,
06:32but the SQA's review,
06:33which was externally scrutinized by the Welsh exam board,
06:38essentially found that these concerns were unfounded
06:42and that it was down to just a poorer performance
06:45from pupils.
06:46The vast majority of markers
06:48reported a poorer performance from pupils.
06:51But the reasons for that,
06:52I'm not sure that the report didn't go into that,
06:54but yeah, that seems to be the finding.
06:58You can read all the latest on those stories
07:00we've discussed at scottsman.com
07:02up in the navigation bar,
07:03on the main part of the homepage,
07:04there's an education tab,
07:06all Callum's stories you'll be able to find in there.
07:09Please continue tuning in
07:11to get all the latest on Donald Trump and developments there
07:15and also the ongoing reaction
07:17around the Scottish and the UK governments
07:20and how they approach this new scenario
07:22of having Trump in power for the next four years.
07:26You'll also be able to find out the initial appointments
07:30that Trump makes over the coming days
07:32and you can expect many more speeches, I'm sure,
07:35from the incoming US president.
07:39Callum, thanks for joining us.
07:40Thanks to everyone at home watching this
07:42and please go out and buy a copy of the paper tomorrow.
07:45Thanks.