The education committee in the Scottish Parliament is considering summoning representatives from the University of Edinburgh to answer to MSPs about their plans to implement £ 140mn in cuts.
The trade unions Unite, Unison, and UCU have written to elected officials to express their concern after Vice-Chancellor Sir Peter Mathieson said that “nothing is off the table” in the upcoming savings.
The multi-million pound deficit has meant that, in the next 18 months, the university must find a way to balance the books. Many fear job losses and the slashing of departmental budgets.
The unions’ letter argues that: “Cuts at this scale, we contend, could severely depress UoE’s revenue, while also being devastating for students, staff and the national community – redundancies, axed courses, barriers to generating future income, and irreversible harm in areas like quality education delivery and student pastoral support, which is already operationally overwhelmed and under-resourced.”
Defending his position, Sir Peter said: “We are and have been in discussion with our joint trade unions throughout this process… We appreciate many of the concerns raised by colleagues, students and others in our community… However, we have been very clear that our current financial position is not sustainable, and we are not immune to the challenges that the higher education sector is currently facing.”
Two weeks ago, MSPs were considering the similar case of Dundee University, which has discovered a similar £35mn black hole in its budget.
Interim principal Prof. Shane O’Neill was made to answer parliament and explain the university’s plan to cut 632 jobs.
A spokesperson for the Scottish Parliament said: “The committee has received this
correspondence from representatives of unions at the University of Edinburgh and, as with all correspondence, will consider its response.”
The move comes months after Sir Peter received widespread criticism for accepting a £20,000 pay rise, which made him Scotland’s highest-paid principal with an annual £420,000 salary.
“Peter Mathieson 2019” by Consulate General of Japan in Edinburgh is licensed under CC BY 4.0.