Smith: Why is £14m being cut from poorer students?

Following today's budget statement, Shadow Cabinet Secretary for Education, Liz Smith MSP, said:

"The tertiary education sector has every right to be deeply concerned about this Budget on two counts:

"Firstly, it seems inconceivable that Mr Swinney's commitment to maintain college and university places can be achieved even over the short term given that the current funding level for higher education institutions is going to fall by 6.4% over the financial years 2010-11 and 2011-12 and by the fact that the SFHEFC funding will fall by 13.7% over the same period. Reductions of this kind will put very considerable burdens on the individual institutions when they consider their intake for the next academic year.

"Secondly, there must be a real worry that the Scottish Government has provided no budget planning for the longer term which means our institutions are very much left in the dark when it comes to setting out their strategy for the next 5 years or longer. Even if we were not in the middle of an economic recession, higher education would still be facing a crisis in terms of how to raise sufficient money in the long term to be able to maintain academic excellence, retain international competitiveness and widen access all at the same time. Indeed, it should be noted with concern that there is to be around £14m taken out of the grants and bursaries available for the poorest students.

"We need to ensure colleges and universities have increased income which will not only be a replacement for lost government spending but an additional source of money for the future so that Scottish colleges and universities can continue at the cutting edge of world education.

"The Scottish Conservatives support the introduction of a graduate contribution, with extra bursary support for the poorest students."

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