How Scotland's colleges are being crushed by SNP austerity

Despite this, further education has not been spared from swingeing budget cuts that are a particularly shocking example of SNP ‘austerity’. This is an accusation often thrown at other parties by nationalist ministers even as they quietly go about slashing funding in ways that they may hope voters will not notice.

The shocking scale of the crisis affecting Scotland’s universities – a situation so severe that Conservative MSP Miles Briggs has warned “every institution could fail” in the next five years – may have overshadowed the plight of its colleges.

However, the figures are stark and can no longer be ignored. The Scottish Funding Council has warned that most colleges in Scotland are “not sustainable”, with 22 out of 24 expected to spend more than their income. A recent Audit Scotland report found college budgets had been reduced by 20 per cent in real terms over the past five years.

Now a report by the Educational Institute of Scotland – Further Education Lecturers’ Association (EIS-FELA) has shed further light on this bleak picture. EIS-FELA president, Anne-Marie Harley, said: “Behind the warm words about skills and productivity lies a reality of deep cuts and a narrowing curriculum which harms students and communities.”

College staffing fell by 7.6 per cent last year – the latest reduction in a long-term trend which dates back about ten years and is expected to continue – and student enrolments are also down more than 12 per cent. The Scotsman may not agree entirely with the union’s analysis of the situation, but we absolutely share their concern about funding cuts.

Education is a key tool to improving productivity and boosting economic growth. If Scotland is to prosper, it must invest in its workforce and give them the skills they need in the modern world. To continue to make such drastic cuts will condemn this country to an almost inevitable decline. Action is required, and quickly.