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The Courier
13-05-2025
- Business
- The Courier
How is crisis-hit UHI Perth College funded?
Claims that UHI Perth College is in a state of chaos led to questions about exactly how the institution is funded – and what it means for the future of the institution. We already know managers are trying to deal with a £2 million deficit, and to do that, it was even suggested degrees could be scrapped. The institution set savings targets of £3.2m last year. On Monday, in an interview with The Courier, its former finance chief says he warned bosses it was at risk of closure without huge cuts. Gavin Stevenson – who resigned on April 18 – told us: 'The financial position is perilous.' Here's a closer look at where UHI Perth College, part of the University of Highlands and Islands, gets its money. The majority of UHI Perth College's funding comes directly from government grants. In its statement of income for July 2023 the college says it received over £18.4 million from funding grants. Of this, over £8m was provided directly to the college for further education students. An additional £7.8m was received by Perth College as its share of the total grant awarded to the University of the Highlands and Islands. Further funding was also provided for capital projects – a total of £300,000 – as well as cash for childcare provision. The next largest source of income for Perth College in 2022-23 was broadly defined as 'other income' – which totalled just over £4 million in total. The financial statements indicate this included just over £1m in revenue from catering and residences. A total of £1.5m came from 'income generating activities' – this is likely to include events, conferences and other commercial activities. The remaining £1.4m in this category is listed only as 'other income' – but the exact sources of this are not defined. It is likely to include donations and other small amounts of income. The third largest source of income for UHI Perth College are tuition fees and education contracts, accounting for some £3.64m. While most Scottish students do not pay for their college and university education, some will if they have already studied and used up their 'allowance'. Of the total, in 2022-23 around £2.67m came from charging students from England, Wales and Northern Ireland tuition fees. This includes degree courses. International students can also be charged fees. In 2024-25, international students studying a full-time undergraduate degree can expect to pay over £15,000 in tuition for a science course. The college also earned over £900,000 from its contracts with Skills Development Scotland. The smallest proportion of UHI Perth College's income came from research grants – around £500,000 in 2022-23. The institution is largely grant funded, which is influenced by student numbers. In the financial year ending July 2023 – the most recent data available – the college had a total revenue of £26.59 million. Staff costs represented the biggest outlay that year. The college spent over £21.3m on salaries, social security and pension contributions for its 354 staff members. Perth College gained university status as part of the Highlands and Islands group in 2011.
The Courier
10-05-2025
- Business
- The Courier
COURIER OPINION: UHI Perth College must ask difficult questions about its future
UHI Perth College faces an uncertain future as managers battle to save the important institution from a £2 million deficit. The response by bosses has included alarming proposals to axe university degrees in a bid to plug the financial black hole. And less than a year after he joined UHI, finance chief Gavin Stevenson has quit. The Courier has also revealed that a group of staff went on an expenses-paid trip to China. While the budget of £8,000 will not have made a material contribution to the financial crisis, it poses serious questions about why the trip, organised to discuss the institution's international programmes, is necessary. Local MP Pete Wishart has now told principal Dr Margaret Cook to 'consider her position' and take responsibility for the mess. We understand the principal is on a leave of absence, with 'health reasons' cited by the institution as the reason she did Trade union GMB has also posed a similar challenge and says staff and students feel 'abandoned' by the leadership of UHI Perth. 'Students and staff have first been failed and now abandoned by the executive team of UHI Perth led by the principal,' said Keir Greenway, a senior organiser with GMB Scotland. The situation at the college is extremely concerning. Nearly 7,000 students are educated there every year, often studying for essential qualifications. A threat to the college's future is a threat to our next generation and the wider economy. But the issues at UHI Perth College appear remarkably familiar to the crisis at the University of Dundee – which The Courier has reported on extensively. Errors in judgement by senior managers have worsened the college's financial position. But fundamentally that position is already weakened by policy decisions from government. Much of the country's higher and further education sector appears to be at a tipping point. In Fife, the principal of the local college has sounded the alarm about 'significant' funding challenges due to below-inflation settlements. Jim Metcalfe fears that the below-inflation funding settlement from government this year will have a 'widely-felt' negative impact on staff and students. This leaves principals with an unenviable set of choices about what a college can deliver. Too many businesses already say they cannot recruit the apprentices they need because of space limits at local colleges. Right at the moment the economy is crying out for highly-trained graduates, colleges may be forced to roll back the number of places they can offer or reduce the number of courses they provide. Similarl to Dundee University, the crisis at UHI Perth may yet prove to be in part be down to mismanagement – but the state of the sector more widely reveals an urgent need for the Scottish Government to look again at how colleges are funded. While this moment of crisis may not be the appropriate time, discussions on the margins suggest a wider conversation is needed to discuss why the Fair City does not have its own distinct college similar to Aberdeen, Fife or Dundee. A part of the University of the Highlands and Islands franchise, a partnership agreement allows the college to deliver UHI programmes and share facilities. It also means that rather than a direct award, UHI Perth shares cash provided by the funding council on behalf of government across the 48 campuses in the partnership. There is some concern it means the institution cannot properly adapt to the evolving needs of Perthshire or its economy – which are distinct from the demands of Inverness, Argyll or Moray. Like the University of Dundee, UHI Perth must come clean about what has gone wrong. It must be honest and, if necessary, brave enough to ask fundamental questions about its future. That process must involve students, staff and local partners, and be rooted in a clear-eyed understanding of what the college is for – and what Perthshire needs it to be.
