On 24 March, the News Editors sat down with Professor Sir Peter Mathieson, Vice-Chancellor and Principal of the University of Edinburgh.
Mathieson has drawn recent criticism for accepting a pay rise of £9,247 and taking up a second job on the board of Roslin Cell Therapies against the backdrop of possible redundancies for university staff.
“Roslin Cell Therapies is one of the great products of the University of Edinburgh,” Mathieson explained, saying he took leave to sit on their board.
Matheison went on to defend the pay rise, awarded by the Independent Remuneration Committee, saying it matched the increase of 2.5 per cent that all staff received.
In February, staff and students were warned that “nothing is off the table” as the University seeks £140m in budget cuts over the next 18 months.
Despite pressures on higher education funding building over the past decade, cuts were only announced in February 2025. Without the detail of the cuts being released, many staff are left fearing for their jobs.
“University’s staffing has grown dramatically at a time when our student numbers are actually flat or even slightly down,” Mathieson said, defending the prospect of redundancies. “We’ve seen this expansion of our expenditure at a time when our income is threatened, and that becomes not sustainable.
“…By definition [the cuts] are proactive… Probably 70 per cent of UK universities are in deficit. We’re not one of them.
“…By taking actions now, we can ensure our future from a position of strength, not from a position of weakness.”
Mathieson added: “We must make sure we are not the next Dundee.”
With staff costs accounting for 58 per cent of university spending, Mathieson believes that “if we’re going to save expenditures, we have to include looking at our staff costs.”
UCU Edinburgh said: “Downsizing is a strategic decision of the University’s Management – not a reaction to an alleged crisis.”
They accuse management at the University of acting as “asset managers” and “manufacturing a crisis” in order to justify a restructuring.
“I think if there had been tuition fees in my day, I might not have gone to university,” Mathieson admits, reflecting on how paying for tuition is often seen as a barrier for students from lower socioeconomic backgrounds.
“I’m not necessarily a fan of tuition fees as a way of funding higher education…[but] they need to be adequate.”
“The amount of money we [the University of Edinburgh] get for a Scottish undergraduate student is not adequate.”
Scottish home students receive £1,820 of state funding for undergraduate degrees, while the rest of the UK students pay £9,535. International students pay upwards of £20,000 a year.
UCU Edinburgh said international students are treated like “cash cows.”
Matheson refuted this claim, saying, “All students should be treated the same irrespective of what fee they pay.”
Still, he acknowledged the “integration issue” that international students face, particularly amongst “large populations of students from China.”
International student numbers have fallen in Scotland over the past two years, with the University of Edinburgh one of the few institutions where recruitment hasn’t dropped.
Still, Mathieson does not “anticipate growth of substantial size” in Edinburgh’s student population.
When discussing a future Erasmus EU-UK agreement, Mathieson said he supports anything that “promotes student mobility.”
With changes to immigration laws limiting the number of international students coming to the UK, Mathieson said he had been campaigning publicly and privately for international students to be taken out of migration statistics “for the major reason they don’t behave like any other group of migrants.”
“… Many of them don’t stay, and they make massive contributions to the country.”
Mathieson described the “transformational effect that a university education can have” for students hailing from low-income backgrounds, like himself.
“Capability and potential are equally distributed across the human race, but opportunity is not.
“So we need to make opportunities available to those people for whom they’re not immediately accessible. That’s a big priority for me personally.”
Responding to the Scottish Social Mobility Society and The 93% Club’s concerns about inclusivity and access at the University, Mathieson acknowledged Edinburgh’s “record is not as good in the rest of the UK,” because of the prioritisation of Scottish students.
University accommodation rents are set to increase by 7 per cent next year, an action likely to discourage students from lower socioeconomic backgrounds from applying to the University.
Mathieson said he wanted to build more university-managed accommodation for undergraduates, who increasingly opt to stay there because they remain cheaper than private-sector rentals, but is limited by the tightened housing market and increasing utility costs.
Despite student satisfaction being a priority for Mathieson since his arrival at the University, rates remain low when compared to other universities. Referencing past industrial action as a cause, Mathieson regrets that “students are caught in the crossfire of a dispute that’s not their making.”
When asked if student experience has declined since he first took office in 2018, the Principal reiterated:
“I don’t think it’s got better, but the world has got harder.”
With continued global uncertainty, imminent budget cuts, and strike action on the horizon, many at the University of Edinburgh will be wondering how much harder things will get, and if they will ever get better.
Image via the News editors.