Budget provides "inadequate funding" for colleges and Unis claims union
NUS Scotland have claimed the draft version of the Scottish government budget provides "inadequate funding" for colleges and universities
A students union has claimed the draft Scottish budget doesn't propose adequate funding for universities and colleges.
The National Union of Students for Scotland claim the budget "threatens to erode the progress made towards making education accessible to all."
There's been an increase of 8.6%, when compared to last year, of students enrolling in Scottish institutions, and a record high number of people from outwith Scotland arriving at Scottish universities and colleges.
However NUS Scotland says the budget presented at stage one yesterday (January 27th) "Fails to provide additional resource for these students and delivers a real-terms cut to further and higher education. The budget is a cut to the core funding of £23.9m for colleges in the academic year 2022/23 because of inflation and a five per cent reduction in funding for universities in real-terms."
Matt Crilly NUS Scotland President said:
“This budget threatens to erode the progress made towards making education accessible to all. While it is welcome that more students than ever are entering education from the most deprived areas in Scotland it is never enough to simply get students in the door.
“Students need support once they enter university or college, to ensure they can stay, thrive and complete their studies. However, we have been living with the Scottish Government delivering real-terms cuts to our education for years, which threatens to jeopardise progress being made and is yet another blow for students.
“It should be the priority of this Government to invest in the futures of the students and young people who have sacrificed so much in recent years.”