SCOTLAND'S universities face a new brain drain, it was claimed last
night. Some of their best academic staff are on the point of leaving
either to new posts abroad or to jobs in industry.
Labour's Front Bench Education spokesman John McFall said the major
cause was the Government's failure to meet their demands for a pay
settlement.
In a letter to Scottish Education Minister Lord James
Douglas-Hamilton, he condemned the Government for blocking a pay
settlement agreed between the university employers and the unions on the
grounds that it could not be afforded while allowing other public pay
settlements which exceeded the university teachers' claims.
He claimed that it was unprecedented for the Government to refuse to
accept a deal negotiated by the unions and employers which the
Association of Vice-Chancellors said could be met from existing
resources.
Mr McFall also told the Minister that the negotiating procedures made
it clear that, in the unusual event of the Government not agreeing to a
pay deal, they had the right to arbitration. He accused the Government
of failing to acknowledge this.
He said: ''The Government opposed a pay review body for university
lecturers on the ground that this would interfere with the autonomy of
the universities, and has repeatedly said over the past year that pay
and conditions should be decided by the universities.
''In light of the current stance, such statements appear extremely
hypocritical.''
Mr McFall said that university lecturers now were teaching 30% more
students per member of staff than 10 years ago, and that in the same
period their salaries had declined by about 27% in real terms.
He said: ''If they continue to try to fund expansion of higher
education without adequate funding, they are going to lose their best
academic staff who will either go into industry or go abroad.
''The lecturers' claim of 5.75% is very modest and only goes a small
way towards offsetting the decline in salary in recent years. It is sad
that the Government is prepared to inflict so much damage on the
universities for such a marginal sum.''
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