Confusion remains over universities reform after government concessions

University chiefs have said “confusion and gaps” remain in Scottish Government plans to reform higher education governance, despite welcoming indications ministers will make concessions.

The Scottish Parliament will vote on Stage 1 of the Higher Education Governance Bill today.

In a letter to the Education and Culture Committee this week, Education Secretary Angela Constance said ministers were minded to take out sections of the bill which some feared could lead to them interfering in the governance of universities.

Concerns lay around the reclassification of universities as public bodies, which would impact their funding options.

A spokeswoman for Universities Scotland said the move would be welcomed.

“However some confusion and gaps in the evidence base still remain in important parts of the bill, including whether the proposals on the selection process for the chair will actually improve what has already been recognised by government as good governance in our universities. We intend to keep working with the Scottish Government and other members of Parliament,” she added.

The proposals would see the chair of a university governing body elected by staff and students.

Dr Douglas Chalmers, president of the University and College Union Scotland, said: “UCU have long argued for elected chairs of university governing bodies.

“While our preferred option has been for rectors to be elected and to chair governing bodies in all institutions across Scotland, electing the senior governor and keeping an elected rector where one exists can work.  At the end of the day, what matters is that chair of the governing body is democratically elected and has the confidence of the university community.”

Ahead of today’s vote Emily Beever, NUS Scotland Women’s Officer, urged MSPs to support the bill.

She said: “Scottish universities aren’t big businesses, serving shareholders and being run from behind closed doors, they’re publicly funded charities who should be serving the best interests of their staff and students.

“That’s why we support moves to reverse the trend we’ve seen of an increasingly managerial and top-down style of governance, and start putting more of a say back in the hands of staff and students.”

However, Scottish Liberal Democrat education spokesman Liam McArthur – who sits on the Holyrood committee who scrutinised the bill at Stage 1 - said he would be calling for the bill to “vanish completely” because of a lack of evidence to back it up.

“Our committee sought evidence for why Ministers are acting in this way; what governance models elsewhere in the world are we trying to emulate; and how can we be assured that ministerial meddling will make things better, not worse. None of this has been provided – none of it at all,” he said.