The Scotsman Bulletin Thursday November 07 2024 #Education

The Scotsman

Transcript

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.

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