News

The Scottish Funding Council has today [Friday 7 December] published the full set of 19 university outcome agreements, agreed between universities and the Scottish Funding Council for academic year 2012/13 onwards. The outcome agreements see universities set out their ambitions to deliver more across a number of areas of activity including widening access to students…

Universities Scotland responded to the Post-16 Education (Scotland) Bill, as published in the Scottish Parliament today [Wednesday 28 November], commenting that the Bill’s broad principles align with university values but that the detail of the provisions will require careful consideration. The Bill applies to both the further and higher education sectors and many of the…

Commenting ahead of the publication of Outcome Agreements 2012/13, a Universities Scotland spokesperson said:   “Through their outcome agreements universities demonstrate the impact from Scotland’s public investment in higher education. The agreements show that all of Scotland’s universities either have, or will look to introduce, some form of contextualised admissions that takes account of an…

Responding to the Times Higher Education World University Rankings 2012-13 published today (Thursday 4 October) Universities Scotland’s Director, Alastair Sim said:   “With four Scottish universities in the world’s top 200, we welcome today’s recognition of the strength of Scotland’s higher education sector in the Times Higher Education 2012-13 World University Rankings. It is clear…

Universities Scotland welcomed the results from the 2012 National Student Survey published today (Thursday) which showed that universities in Scotland had a higher rate of student satisfaction than universities in England and Wales. Students at Scotland’s universities rated their overall satisfaction at 86 per cent. This compared to an 84 per cent satisfaction rating for…

Responding to Johann Lamont’s speech on 25 September in which she suggested there had been a decline in the standards of Scotland’s universities, Universities Scotland’s Director, Alastair Sim said:   “We are incredibly proud to have five Scottish universities in the world’s top 200. Every university has been judged to undertake research that is of…

Universities Scotland this afternoon (Thursday 20 September) welcomed the draft budget announcement by Finance Secretary Swinney, which sees a planned investment of £1,041.6 million for universities in financial year (FY) 2013/14. Responding to the budget, Alastair Sim, Director of Universities Scotland, said:   “We warmly welcome today’s budget as outlined by the Finance Secretary, which…

Universities Scotland today (Thursday, 13th September) welcomed the announcement from David Willets, UK Government Minister for Universities and Science, that the UK Government will publish disaggregated figures for net migration, reporting separately on international students. The Minister made the announcement earlier today, during his morning address to the Universities UK annual conference taking place at…

Commenting on today’s statistics from UCAS, Alastair Sim, Director of Universities Scotland, said:   “There has been a lot of speculation about university places this year. Today’s snap-shot figures from UCAS provide some necessary perspective on the current situation. Places available to Scottish students at Scottish universities have held steady. The conversion rate this year of acceptances is actually…

A number of Scottish universities still have places remaining in clearing for Scottish and EU students for entry this year (as of Friday, 17 August). Clearing places are available to Scottish and EU students on courses as varied as business, engineering, science, computing and subjects linked to the creative industries. Clearing for Scottish students opened…