UNIVERSITIES in Scotland will be hit by a multi-million pound loss as a result of the decision to delay students’ return to campus until the end of February.
It is another financial blow for a sector already reeling from the impact of the Covid-19 pandemic.
Student leaders have also warned that students will also lose out financially by having to pay for private accommodation which they no longer need if they cannot return. Those in university halls are expected to claim accommodation rebates.
The university deficit in Scotland is already running at £176.1 million but that does not take into account the accommodation rebates or costs that universities incurred running the testing programme before Christmas, which was only partially met by the UK Government.
Universities are now expecting a massive soar in claims for rent refunds after the First Minister’s announcement last Friday that students should remain studying at home until the end of February instead of returning to campus this month.
During the first wave of the virus the Scottish Funding Council (SFC) estimated that universities lost £72m from accommodation refunds and loss of events/conferences.
As this new lockdown is occurring earlier in the year the losses could be even greater.
Alastair Sim, director of Universities Scotland, said it could quickly run into “tens of millions”.
“Universities support the need for the current lockdown but the necessary measures inevitably mean another big hit to university finances, with students not returning to their accommodation,” he said.
“This could quickly run into the tens of millions across the sector, as we saw in the first wave from last March. This comes on top of longstanding underfunding issues.
“We need to see the Scottish Government increase its investment in universities’ core grants in the January budget – teaching and research are currently funded well below the cost of provision. A quick fix to address the short-term pressure of accommodation refunds will not be enough to meet the challenges that universities are dealing with and give students the experience they deserve.”
Although a delay to the phased return was welcomed by student leaders they are urging the Scottish Government to commit to online learning for the entire term.
“We are concerned that guidance that is short-term and open-ended will result in students paying for accommodation they cannot use,” said Matt Crilly, NUS Scotland president.
“NUS Scotland continues to urge the Scottish Government to commit to online learning as the default position for the semester ahead with exceptions for practical and lab-based courses. That way no student is on campus unless absolutely necessary and every student will have the certainty they need to leave their accommodation contracts early.
“If students don’t need to return this semester they should be told now.
“As things stand, students are being expected to pay expensive rent for accommodation they can’t use.
“The Scottish Government must intervene and make urgent financial support available to ensure no student is left out of pocket.”
University leaders are also calling for “urgent clarity” on the new rules, particularly on those who are allowed to return to campus.
“We can’t move forward assuming that all students are the same,” said Sim. “Different personal circumstances, different course needs, different living and study environments all need to be supported in the interests of wider student wellbeing.
“There needs to be a set of well-considered exemptions. Universities are the best judge of this so we want to see some level of discretion left to universities to ensure the rules work for real people and their circumstances in different local contexts.”
He also said he hoped the tone of the guidance would shift to a “far more affirmative footing” than the statement issued by the Scottish Funding Council last week which he said was “excessively punitive”.
“Everyone understands the need to follow the rules but rules land a lot better when they’re drafted from an assumption of good faith, which would be a much better reflection of the high levels of compliance that students have shown,” said Sim.
Over 215,000 students and over 38,000 staff directly depend on Scotland’s universities and the sector delivers £11 billion of economic impact annually.
The universities say funding was already down at least £700 per student pre-Covid compared with 2014/15 because of a decrease in real terms in the Higher Education Teaching Grant.
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