Scotsman Bulletin Wednesday 16 April

The Scotsman

16/04/2025

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00:00hello welcome to the scotsman's daily video bulletin for this wednesday my name's dale

00:13miller i'm deputy editor of the scotsman and i'm joined by our education correspondent callum ross

00:19uh callum as always we've got plenty to talk about on the education front but i just want

00:24to reference the front page of today's paper firstly and we let on alarm as flu deaths set

00:30for the highest level in 45 years uh quite a concerning story from our deputy political editor

00:37david boll um obviously it was a tough winter there was ongoing pressure on the scottish

00:45government around how it's responding to the nhs health crisis with extra money committed in the

00:52budget but will that get to the heart of some of the issues you can read that full story

00:56from david at scotsman.com we also have full coverage from the supreme court verdict

01:05involving for women's scotland who have had a ruling in their favor there'll be plenty of

01:09implications around it but if you want to read the very latest on that outcome and the initial

01:15take on what it means uh visit scott scotsman.com for all your latest uh callum uh you're on to talk

01:22about education uh jenny galruth the education secretary had a few things to say about the

01:28situation with dundee university can you bring us up to speed that's right dale i mean the government

01:34scotch government's really kind of been stepping up its response to the the crisis at dundee university in

01:40the last few weeks i think um we've obviously had 22 million pounds of liquidity support uh confirmed

01:48by the scotch funding council to to stop the university running out of money um we saw last

01:54week there's an announcement of a a task force being created to kind of help um steer the recovery that's

02:00going to be headed by former dundee principal sir alan langland scotch funding council also appointed this

02:07auditing firm bdo to work on the inquiry into uh what went wrong at the university and that that's

02:14underway now i think um it's emerged that the deputy first minister kate forbes has been chairing a

02:21cross-party um group on on on the situation at dundee university and yesterday um jenny galruth the

02:29education secretary um turned up at dundee university um where she she spoke to uh reporters

02:37including our own uh rachel uh emery um she kind of confirmed that that the university's proposal for

02:44700 job losses um was not palatable for the the government that that that was the phrase she used

02:51um she she confirmed that the government had asked the the university to think again on that number um

02:59and that bosses had um um you know they're looking at a range of alternative options to try to kind of

03:06limit those job losses although i think there there will uh inevitably i think be job losses there um

03:14also kind of hints of of the potential for further public money on top of this 22 million pounds um

03:21although she's not you know outright saying it um at the moment and you can imagine for the government

03:26you know there's a couple of of big issues there big pressing reasons why why they're responding in this

03:33way it was interesting last week kate forbes came out and kind of made a point of saying that students

03:38should accept their offers to the university and that they can be confident of its future i mean

03:45there must be a a worry that you know that there's going to be a drop in a further drop in and and up

03:54you know applications and acceptances to dundee and that's one of the the issues that's caused the

03:58crisis there one of one of a few issues and if that were happen where to happen you know there's

04:03a bit of a risk of a sort of downward spiral there isn't there um that must be the worry anyway also

04:09politically you know um 700 jobs is is a lot anywhere it'd be a lot for for dundee well-paid jobs as

04:18well dundee's important for the smp it's it's if you might remember at the time of the independence

04:24referendum it's kind of dubbed yes yes the yes city um it's a battleground with labor the two

04:31constituency s msps or smps um joe fitzpatrick you've got john swinney himself the first minister

04:39next door in persia and jenny galruth not too far away in fife as well you'd imagine some of the people

04:45we're worrying about their jobs will will live in in the likes of persia and and fife as well so a big

04:51kind of regional impact there uh and you know a lot of factors at play and also it was obviously

04:59the uh backyard constituency for humza yusuf former first minister as well um and dundee university has

05:05been really a critical part of dundee's sort of revival and emergence as a city um in recent years

05:13you only have to visit to see what an impact that the student population has had on the city and as you

05:18say callum um there is a risk that if people see this news and are concerned about the the resources

05:26or the outlook for dundee university going forward that do they choose to enroll elsewhere or do they

05:32choose to apply elsewhere so um it is one to watch a lot of concern for the entire city um outside of

05:39that uh it doesn't seem that a week goes by without more news around strikes um across universities

05:45kelham where are we at in terms of you know a university and some of the other key universities

05:50in industrial action yeah well we had um robert gordon university um members of the eis union went out

05:58on strike uh yesterday and i think there's um there's more more strikes planned for the first week in

06:05may there that's again over kind of cutbacks and the the threat of of compulsory redundancies we've had uh

06:12we've had three weeks of strikes at dundee university and uh you know the way things are going out i

06:17wouldn't be surprised if if there was more coming down the lines um and uh edinburgh as you say there

06:24the ucu union are balloting for industrial action and sort of unison uh i believe um so yeah yeah plenty

06:32plenty more kind of disruption ahead at these these universities uh anyway you can read all the

06:39latest on the education front at scotsman.com just follow the education tab in the navigation bar for

06:44the latest uh callum thanks to you thanks to our visitors for tuning in you can pick up a full copy

06:50of the scotsman tomorrow which will have uh the impact and all the reaction around the supreme court

06:57verdict today that has effectively ruled in favor of the four women's school and position uh thanks to

07:03to everyone for joining us

Scotsman Bulletin Wednesday 16 April

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