According to Sir Peter Mathieson, the university is in a severe financial crisis, so severe that we’re looking at £140m in cuts, targeting everything from sanitary products in the Main Library to Scottish students.
These cuts can be stressful; executives at the university were so stressed out that they spent over £110,000 on travel and accommodation from 1 August 2024 to 31 July 2025, to take the edge off these trying times of overworking and laying off staff. And think of Peter Mathieson! Poor old Peter doesn’t even know what his salary is; after all, it’s only £881,789 in wages and expenses over two years. How could he even begin to furnish his £1.7m Edinburgh townhouse… which he lives in for free.
Mathieson recently brought his greed to a whole new level when he said that Scottish students should contribute to paying tuition as the current model is “not sustainable,” instead suggesting a salary based “graduate repayment” or asking those who could afford it to pay the fees.
Mathieson acts under the guise of protecting Scotland’s universities, while Edinburgh slips further down the UK university rankings. This is not an attempt to save Scottish universities, it’s a bid to bleed students dry of their money, making a notoriously elitist and classist university even more elitist and classist by pushing out under-represented groups – which Mathieson was once a part of, coming from a state school and being the first in his family to go to university.
Thankfully, there has been some outspoken opposition. Ash Scholz, President of the Edinburgh University Students’ Association, said: “Any proposal that asks Scottish students to ‘repay’ tuition costs, regardless of how it is framed, risks undermining that principle and placing additional financial pressure on graduates at a time when many are already facing rising living costs and insecure employment.”
But with all this money he’s getting paid, surely Mathieson is doing something useful? As the 35th Principal and Vice Chancellor of the university, he is responsible for the overall operations of the university, and confers degrees on behalf of the Chancellor, Her Royal Highness The Princess Royal. To summarise the university’s description of his roles, he must be an inspiring leader of strategic development while maintaining strong governance structures, ensuring the finances are well managed to deliver excellence, and building constructive and positive relationships with key external stakeholders.
Looking at the drop in rankings and the distaste for the handling of finances within the university, Mathieson has failed his students by not living up to his responsibilities – specifically the underrepresented Scottish students, who only make up a quarter of students as of 2024. Mathieson wants to see this already small number decrease even further for the sake of more money, not necessity.
Photo by Isabel Beiboer for The Student.
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Mathieson Throws Scottish Students Under the Bus
According to Sir Peter Mathieson, the university is in a severe financial crisis, so severe that we’re looking at £140m in cuts, targeting everything from sanitary products in the Main Library to Scottish students.
These cuts can be stressful; executives at the university were so stressed out that they spent over £110,000 on travel and accommodation from 1 August 2024 to 31 July 2025, to take the edge off these trying times of overworking and laying off staff. And think of Peter Mathieson! Poor old Peter doesn’t even know what his salary is; after all, it’s only £881,789 in wages and expenses over two years. How could he even begin to furnish his £1.7m Edinburgh townhouse… which he lives in for free.
Mathieson recently brought his greed to a whole new level when he said that Scottish students should contribute to paying tuition as the current model is “not sustainable,” instead suggesting a salary based “graduate repayment” or asking those who could afford it to pay the fees.
Mathieson acts under the guise of protecting Scotland’s universities, while Edinburgh slips further down the UK university rankings. This is not an attempt to save Scottish universities, it’s a bid to bleed students dry of their money, making a notoriously elitist and classist university even more elitist and classist by pushing out under-represented groups – which Mathieson was once a part of, coming from a state school and being the first in his family to go to university.
Thankfully, there has been some outspoken opposition. Ash Scholz, President of the Edinburgh University Students’ Association, said: “Any proposal that asks Scottish students to ‘repay’ tuition costs, regardless of how it is framed, risks undermining that principle and placing additional financial pressure on graduates at a time when many are already facing rising living costs and insecure employment.”
But with all this money he’s getting paid, surely Mathieson is doing something useful? As the 35th Principal and Vice Chancellor of the university, he is responsible for the overall operations of the university, and confers degrees on behalf of the Chancellor, Her Royal Highness The Princess Royal. To summarise the university’s description of his roles, he must be an inspiring leader of strategic development while maintaining strong governance structures, ensuring the finances are well managed to deliver excellence, and building constructive and positive relationships with key external stakeholders.
Looking at the drop in rankings and the distaste for the handling of finances within the university, Mathieson has failed his students by not living up to his responsibilities – specifically the underrepresented Scottish students, who only make up a quarter of students as of 2024. Mathieson wants to see this already small number decrease even further for the sake of more money, not necessity.
Photo by Isabel Beiboer for The Student.
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