Scottish universities requires to play a bigger part on the world stage

October 13, 2015
The government of Scotland is called on for doing much more for boosting the overseas profile of the colleges and universities of Scotland.

As per the released reports, an action for boosting the research and helping more Scottish students for studying abroad has been encouraged.  

Universities in Scotland requires to play a bigger part on the world stage

It came after the President of the Royal Society of Edinburgh; Dame Jocelyn Bell Burnell had warned that the universities in Scotland are gaining international reputation.

There are around 28,500 foreign students at the Scottish universities that contribute about 77 million pounds every year in the form of fees. There are around 17,000 European students as well.

Universities have warned that there are many barriers in their way which include funding, less number of Scottish students going out from Scotland and the policy of immigration.

A report was revealed that cited major concerns from the University of Dundee that the cut in public fun for research means that Scotland is lagging behind their competitors and also putting limit on number of Ph.D. students, despite the Ph.D. students are driving the research pipeline.

Universities told that 14 million pounds were cut in the previous year, as every pound of funding that is generated by the universities in Scotland generates another two pounds in the competitive research giants.

Spends on research in Scotland is at present 0.65 of GDP, compared to 0.9% in France and the US.

At the colleges, the total number of EU and European students has plummeted by around 75% just to remain a few hundred. The number of foreign students has also decreased due to changes in the post-study work visa.

A strategic approach has been called by the colleges from the government of Scotland like the system in Northern Ireland where all support has been given for supporting their European and foreign presence. 

The report also suggests that there has been considerable potential for building on the international engagement activities of the colleges and the universities in the Scotland.

The Scotland has been urged to consider the concerns related to the public investment in the research and support for the institutions of higher education.

The reintroduction of the visa for post work study shall be pursued, as the lack of opportunities will remain in the UK following the graduation making it difficult for attracting foreign students.

Meetings have been held with the government of  UK at ministerial level on this matter, but the UK Home Secretary has made it clear that the government has no plans of reintroducing the visas of post-study work.

But the ministers in the Scotland has established the group of cross-party which includes representative from the student, education and business interests for looking into the issue related to the visa of post-study work.

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