17.02.2014 - Academics for Yes launch - Professor Murray Pittock, University of Glasgow
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Free higher education can be secured only with independence, say Academics for Yes
- Sixty academics sign up for new pro-Yes group -
A No vote in September would seriously threaten the future of Higher Education across Scotland, leading academics warned today.
In addition to policies pursued by the Westminster government that simply do not work for Scotland, the very real danger of a UKIP victory in England in this year’s European elections could mean an end to EU funding for university research.
The warnings come from Professor Bryan MacGregor, of Aberdeen University, and Professor Murray Pittock, of Glasgow University.
The two professors are part of a founding group of some 60 from Scottish academia and learning who today [Monday, February 17] launched Academics for Yes in support of the independence campaign.
Professor MacGregor said: ‘I am not a politician. I am not even a political activist. I am an academic and I am a citizen. I had no intention of taking an active role and certainly not a public role in the referendum campaign. But the negativity of the No campaign has compelled me to make a public stand.’
A third professor in the new group, Joe Goldblatt, of Queen Margaret University in Edinburgh, said: ‘If the right to offer free education for the citizens of Scotland is to be preserved, full and independent economic control over these matters must be gained through independence.
'Only then will there be further assurance for future generations that the values of the past hold true today and for the foreseeable future through remaining strong advocates and leaders through universally free colleges and universities in Scotland.’
Orkney-based Donna Heddle, Professor at the University of the Highlands and Islands and Director of Nordic Studies, said: ‘I’m backing this campaign because it’s the right thing to do. Independence is the only way that academia and research will flourish in Scotland.
'We must work together in learning all the way up from primary schools to research to create new opportunities for the people of our country.’
Speaking at the launch of Academics for Yes in Glasgow, Professors MacGregor and Pittock said: ‘There is every reason to believe that Yes will create improved and more secure funding. Higher education is one of Scotland’s many success stories: our research is among the most highly cited in the world, and our Government ceaselessly promotes it.'
They explained their worries over the No campaign and its negativity and their growing concern at the negative language Better Together use over the potential of Scotland’s science and universities under independence.
‘The SNP Government is strongly committed to science and universities, seeing them not only as a beacon of status internationally, with five of our universities in the top 200 worldwide, but also as engines of economic growth and international co-operation,’ they said.
‘The creation of innovation centres, funding of postgraduate studentships linked to economic development and recent agreement on co-operation in science with Hong Kong are all clear evidence of this.
'Also, abolition of tuition fees and expansion of funded places linked to social justice and widening participation show a commitment to inheritance of a democratic intellect at odds with the increasingly marketised state of higher education provision elsewhere in the UK.’
They added: ‘From evidence-based policy to renewable energy, the role of science and universities is gaining importance to creation of a smart, successful and socially just Scotland.
‘It’s reasonable to ask those who think independence would be bad for our universities whom they would expect to implement different policies than those prevailing in the rest of the UK: £9000 tuition fees for all (likely to rise, and unlikely to be reversed by Labour); hostility to overseas students in support of an anti-immigrant agenda which has engendered widespread opposition in higher education and internationally; the prospect of significant cuts in research funding from 2015, widely reported in England, but absent from any argument for voting No.’
Scottish seats of learning punch well above their weight and are major players on the world stage in competition for international funding. For instance, they have secured 505 million euros of EU money since 2007.
And of the threat posed by the advance of UKIP, they said: ‘To these policies must be added the substantial risk of withdrawal from the EU. The fact that UKIP is odds-on to win the 2014 Euro elections across the UK, and what this implies, means a threat that the whole of UK higher education could be excluded from European research funding.’
‘The main threats from No are cuts in the Scottish block grant, loss of access to EU funding and overseas goodwill. Relentless reduction in public spending, current pressures to reduce university support in England even more and privatisation of English universities through fees will lead to reductions in the Barnett formula for public funding in Scotland.
'Or worse, abolition of the Barnett formula would have catastrophic effects on higher and further education expenditure in Scotland, putting pressure on any Scottish Government to re-introduce fees in Scotland - something that the three main parties in the No campaign would support.
‘These outcomes would be disastrous. We remember the many naysayers to devolution’s effect on universities before devolution; they were proved wrong then, but ask us to believe them now. Yet the principles of Scottish higher education have seldom been under greater threat than they are from some of the current policies of political parties lined up behind No.’
They conclude: ‘Devolution provided some temporary relief from policies developed elsewhere in the UK; only independence can protect us in future and allow us to flourish.’
The announcement of the latest specialism group to join the campaign for independence is welcomed by Blair Jenkins, Chief Executive of Yes Scotland.
‘This truly is an A-team from the various fields of learning and those involved have a wealth of knowledge and experience to bring to our ever-growing movement,’ he said.
‘Their views and advice form opinions that have serious relevance to a future Scotland – an independent nation - and their fears, worries and warnings must be heeded.’
[ENDS]
Notes to Editors:
• A copy of the Academics for Yes Declaration with a roll call of the signatories is available for download here:
• Pictures of the leading figures in Academics for Yes are available for download here:
Issued by Yes Scotland. For further information contact:
Gordon Hay 07784 772905 Ian McKerron 07740 510411 Sean Lafferty 07875 299495