SCOTLAND's newest universities are losing out to older institutions because of a funding bias, claims a senior academic.
Professor Anthony Cohen, the principal of Queen Margaret University, which achieved university status last year, says the Scottish Funding Council (SFC) favours pre-1992 institutions by awarding higher grants.
He accused the SFC, which allocates
funding to all of Scotland's universities and colleges, as having a "continuing bias" against new universities.
He called on the Joint Future Thinking Taskforce, created to find new ways to fund universities, to tackle the "serious anomaly", which could hamper Scotland's future. He said: "The deleterious consequences of this discrimination go far beyond the universities themselves.
"The post-1992 universities are primarily concerned with the creation, transfer and translation of 'new knowledge', focused on applicable research and on graduate and postgraduate skills, all close to market, and all of the kind on which the sustainability and prosperity of Scotland depends.
"But their ability to deliver this work as fully as they should is severely restricted by the formulae through which they are funded." He said the way cash was allocated had not changed in the 16 years since legislation allowed former polytechnics to claim university status.
"As a result, the gap between old and new universities has not narrowed at all; indeed, following the latest round of allocations last week, it is wider than ever," he said.
"The eight older universities were given average funding increases of 3.87 per cent; the six post-1992 universities received an average increase of 2 per cent."
Prof Cohen blamed the disparity on the way research capability is assessed, as it did not allow new universities to compete on an equal basis.
The SFC announced last week how £1,102 million would be allocated to universities in 2008-9.
Responding to Prof Cohen's claims, Roger McClure, the chief executive of the SFC , denied that there was any bias.
He said government policy dictated that the finite pot of money available to universities for research must go to the strongest research centres to ensure that they remained world-class facilities.
"The difference in the increases awarded to individual universities are mainly driven by the performance of those institutions," said Mr McClure.
"That is based on criteria such as the quality of their research and the amount of knowledge transfer they have achieved.
"The figures show that some post-1992 institutions did well while some did less well. In other words, there is no systematic bias against post-1992 institutions."
Professor Bernard King, the principal of Abertay University, a post-1992 institution, said it was astonishing the funding bias had persisted for so long.
He said: "There is so much more that universities like QMU and Abertay could be doing to support Scotland's social, cultural and economic aspirations, but only if the funding council show the same flexibility and commitment to invest in the post-92s that they have long shown towards blue-sky research."
He added: "The research funding process will ultimately ossify both research and universities if it is not reformed."
Brian Lang, the principal at St Andrews University, said this year's funding settlement recognised the crucial importance of high-quality research excellence to the Scottish economy.
The low-budget settlement for the sector had sparked concern among university leaders, but an additional £20 million helped to allay fears.
A spokesman for Glasgow University said: "Allocations are a matter for the funding council and Glasgow will continue to invest its allocation in our areas of world-class excellence."
The full article contains 595 words and appears in The Scotsman newspaper.
