As Dundee University lurches from one crisis to another, it’s time for a root and branch reassessment of how our educational establishments operate.
Nothing should be off the table including possible mergers and three-year degrees, instead of the current four years.
We should look at the entire funding model too.
Closer cooperation in the education sector addressing the respective strengths and weaknesses of each institution – and building a much closer relationship between universities themselves and also local colleges of further education – is also needed.
With the principal and his vice-principal jumping ship at Dundee, the rank-and-file admin staff and lecturers must be wondering if the boat they’re on is headed for the rocks.
Now plans to merge the dental and nursing schools have been paused at an institution paralysed by a failure to provide concerned employees with reassurances for their futures.
The university is a vital component of economic and educational wellbeing in this area.
But it is in a state of disarray due to a huge funding shortfall as international student recruitment falls sharply, reducing income dramatically.
If those in charge at Dundee can’t offer solutions to the crisis, then the Scottish Government must.
‘Put local communities first’
It’s no consolation to anyone at the university but I suspect Dundee won’t be alone in its current travails in the higher education sector.
It also seems to me that instead of appointing principals who were once hired for their broad academic expertise and knowledge, the concept has shifted too much towards asking them to act as glorified CEOs.
Our universities should be focussed on assessing and delivering the educational needs of their local communities first and foremost.
But in the rush to recruit high fee-paying students from abroad, now a less sustainable model, Dundee and some other universities seem to have lost sight of that principle.
Universities’ core aims should be local.
They should aim to meet the needs of employers in the communities where the institutions are based.
Instead it looks like some universities, in their desperate attempt to chase the big fees which students from abroad have been paying, have strayed too far from their original role.
There also needs to be much more cooperation and collaboration within the Scottish university sector and that might mean mergers are worth exploring.
At the very least we should examine all areas where for instance the likes of Dundee, Abertay, and St Andrews University could find common ground and assist each other.
St Andrews is very international in terms of the students it attracts, with only around 30 per cent of the student body being Scottish, while just over a fifth of the students at Dundee were from an international background.
That international element isn’t a bad thing; it’s good both economically and culturally.
But in a highly-competitive market, it’s going to be an increasing struggle to continue to attract foreign students against the competition from other major and better known universities elsewhere.
Conversation