The Scotsman Tuesday 19 November Bulletin

The Scotsman

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00:00Hello, and welcome to the Scotsman's Daily Video Bulletin for this Tuesday.

00:13My name is Dale Miller.

00:14I'm Deputy Editor of the Scotsman, and I'm joined by our Education Correspondent, Callum

00:20Ross.

00:21Callum, another day and seemingly more bad news from another Scottish university, and

00:27it is the front page splash of today's Scotsman.

00:32Edinburgh University announcing that it will shed staff now.

00:36The Principal made a statement yesterday in which he outlined the terms of a voluntary

00:42redundancy scheme that the university was launching, and Callum, we're going to talk

00:47about that shortly.

00:49We've also got Captain Fantastic there, Andy Robertson, celebrating that late last gasp

00:55winner for Scotland.

00:57That was a great way to finish last night, and there's plenty of the wash-up coverage

01:02this morning around that story, but Callum, back on the university's situation, it was

01:08outside of launching the voluntary redundancy scheme.

01:11The thing of interest to me was what the Principal said in the statement and the reasons outlined

01:17for why they were doing it.

01:19What did you take away from it?

01:21Yeah, yeah, I was the same as you, Dale.

01:23Obviously, we've been covering in depth for months about the pressures in the higher education

01:30sector in Scotland.

01:33We've already had announcements of voluntary redundancies in recent weeks and months at

01:38Robert Gordon University in Aberdeen and Dundee University, and Aberdeen University's been

01:45through a VR round as well.

01:49Those have been linked to pressures to do with budget cuts, Scottish Government budget

01:53cuts, both real terms and actual cash cuts, and also the fall in international student

02:01numbers.

02:02But you're right, what was interesting about the message that was sent to Sir Peter Matheson,

02:08the Principal of Edinburgh University, sent to staff yesterday, that he specifically highlighted

02:14the increase in national insurance employers' contributions, announced by Chancellor Rachel

02:21Reeves at the budget, sort of gave the impression that that was the straw that broke the camel's

02:27back, really.

02:30So he's kind of putting it on the UK Government as well as the Scottish Government.

02:36I guess the other interesting point to make about that announcement is it comes just days

02:41after we reported that Peter Matheson himself had been awarded a 5% pay rise, which we think

02:49was worth about £20,000, coming at a time where he's overseeing cutbacks and potentially

02:58job losses.

02:59I think they're opening a voluntary redundancy round, but have said that compulsory redundancies

03:05might be unavoidable as well.

03:09Gallim, I was interested, the S&P response was basically saying this is the tip of the

03:14iceberg.

03:15They're firmly, as they would, because there's a political opportunity there, they're putting

03:21the onus here on national insurance contributions and this being the final straw.

03:27Now we've had reports about the knock-on impact for GPs, etc.

03:33Do you really think the national insurance stuff has tipped some of these universities

03:36over the edge?

03:37Are you expecting more announcements beyond the three universities we've discussed?

03:41I think it's definitely possible that it's tipping some over the edge.

03:45They were under real pressures already.

03:48We reported earlier this year about Aberdeen University, couldn't even say that it would

03:54definitely continue as a going concern in its account.

03:59So the pressures were real and this kind of unexpected additional pressure definitely

04:04could be the straw that breaks the camel's back for some universities.

04:08I think we need to watch this space.

04:11Gallim, you wrote about another education story that's been leading our site throughout

04:17this morning. Now it's some correspondence that you got via Freedom of Information and

04:23it reveals an interesting request coming via the Scottish Government.

04:28Yeah, that's right.

04:29This story is slightly linked to the issue of university finances.

04:36It's about the lack of permanent jobs for teachers in Scotland, particularly primary

04:42teachers. More than 80% of new primary teachers weren't in permanent posts in September

04:49after qualifying last year.

04:52We reported recently that the Scottish Government is actually considering reducing the

04:55targets for student primary teachers by as much as 20% from next year.

05:02But these emails that have emerged show that the Scottish Government officials told

05:09universities last year that they could over-recruit on the number of student primary

05:15teachers last year.

05:16It wasn't by a huge, huge number.

05:19I think the total over-recruitment was just short of 70.

05:23But this is emerging at a time where there are reports of primary teacher job vacancies

05:30getting hundreds of applications.

05:33Now the emails show, the link to the previous other story, the emails show that the

05:39Government were basically trying to reassure universities and give them flexibilities

05:44because they were kind of worried about the financial impact of having lower numbers of

05:49student teachers.

05:51So it shows the kind of balancing act that the Scottish Government has to consider.

05:57You know, on the one hand, on the one hand, if they recruit too many student teachers,

06:03then there's too many, you know, there's oversaturation in the job market.

06:06But if they cut the number too sharply, then that will only exacerbate the pressures in

06:10the higher education sector and potentially lead to more job losses there.

06:15And Callum, I know even within our own wider group over the past couple of years, we had

06:22the partner of someone, a student teacher that had to accept a job on the continent

06:26basically because of the issues around getting a student teacher placement here in

06:31Scotland. So it's definitely a real issue.

06:34You can read that story at Scotsman.com, including Edinburgh University job cuts and

06:40the implications from that.

06:42There'll be more to come in this space, as Callum says, watch this space for the latest

06:47news. We've got an education tab in the navigation bar that you can read all the very

06:52latest from Callum. You can follow us on Facebook, X and Instagram.

06:56And we're also newly on Blue Sky.

06:58Please follow us on that platform where we'll be reporting some of our latest news each

07:04day. Callum, thanks to you and thanks to everyone else for joining us.

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