Statement on Framework for Sustainability and Success of Scotland’s Universities

27 January 2026
Aerial Image of the Freshers Fair 2025
DUSA President’s statement on framework for sustainability and success of Scotland’s Universities. 

We are now 15 months into a financial crisis at the University of Dundee, but the roots are much longer and go beyond recent years of local mismanagement.
 
People have the right to expect a properly-funded education system from pre-school through to university. There is wide consensus that the current model and settlement of tertiary education funding is not working. We welcome the Framework announced by the Scottish Government and Universities Scotland to examine the future of university funding. Colleges and Further Education must also be properly funded and it is welcome that this will be examined in the Framework.
 
The reality is that students, staff and taxpayers are paying for a broken model. Both universities and the political system have let us down by allowing the funding crisis to occur. While the recent announced uplift for tertiary education is welcome ahead of the May 2026 Scottish Parliament election, it is not a long-term solution.
 
Between the Westminster and Holyrood governments, all the political parties are implicated in the crisis in HE. Whether it is the Conservative/Lib-Dem coalition or current Labour Westminster Government or the SNP and Green budgets at Holyrood, students can be forgiven for feeling like we are being used as a political football. At the time of writing, Reform has no education policy to comment on.
 
There have been welcome changes in the culture, management and governance of the University. Some less visible changes, around procurement, budget-holder responsibilities, oversight etc are being implemented. Structural and cultural changes may allow for less bureaucratic, siloed thinking. There are parts of the recovery of the university that have the potential to be entirely positive and welcome, though other aspects are deeply problematic.
 
The University of Dundee has implemented a recruitment freeze since November 2024 and conducted a round of voluntary severance, amounting to several hundred job losses. Predictably, this has had a negative effect on student experience. This includes reduction in the time and capacity of both academic and support staff. This inevitably has a particularly negative effect on the students with greater needs for support.
 
It is deeply unfair that the effect of the crisis is being felt most by students who have the most to gain from a university experience. Those who make decisions and set policy, whether at the University or in Parliament and Government, should reflect on the real-life consequences of the unacceptable situation in HE.
 
DUSA is particularly concerned that further job cuts will result in untenable workloads. It is not enough to simply say hard decisions must be made. The effect of cuts so far has led to situations such as students and staff protecting their course in architecture. Other issues are less publicly visible for now but may become so over the next year.
 

DUSA continues to play a constructive role in protecting student interests both within the university and in dialogue with external stakeholders.

DUSA President

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