Inside universities: Silence may signal a not-so-golden future

SO, THE Joint Future Thinking Taskforce has had its final meeting and everyone in higher education is eagerly awaiting its final conclusions.

However, three weeks after the last gathering of select university principals and Scottish Government officials, no report has so far emerged.

The taskforce was set up after the last budget settlement saw universities receive far less than the £168 million over three years they said was necessary to compete with English institutions. It was meant to find future funding solutions, but critics complained the taskforce became mired in the present.

Now cynics are beginning to question the delay, claiming it marks a split between the sides. An insider said: "They expected to have a document after that meeting, but nothing came out of it.

"There are divisions, in particular over the Horizon fund – how the public funds will be split between general funds and the Horizon pot."

Horizon is intended to be a fund universities can bid for above the money they receive individually. The idea is it will pay for strategic joint projects, such as research pooling.

However, it is understood the Scottish Funding Council, which is represented on the taskforce, was keen to exert more control over this than universities would like.

There are also issues over the tripartite group expected to oversee the new "lighter touch" funding regime. But the meetings became so bogged down in disagreement that it was barely discussed.

The source asked: "Who will be on it? Staff and students, selected principals? It's all still to be agreed. They expected to have all that finalised by the last meeting. After three or four months of talk, nothing has come out of this taskforce."

There is a strong feeling that the final report will contain no more than the interim version – which did little more than say more state funding was needed.

A source added: "In order to save face, it is expected they will come out with a document with no firm conclusions.

"This is all about saving face until they can get through to the next spending review."

The final report is expected by Christmas, but such a lengthy and vague timescale indicates much needs to be ironed out between the two sides.

If the Scottish Funding Council doesn't back off and start living up to the government vow to give universities more freedom over spending, a very public spat could emerge.