Next week, the Treasury will be told the full extent of a multimillion-pound deficit that universities claim has been caused by its moving the goalposts. The University Grants Committee (UGC) has given institutions until Monday to produce information on private staff re-engagement schemes, which have unexpectedly been ruled ineligible for compensation on the grounds that they breach UGC rules. Unless the Treasury can be persuaded to relent, universities that have introduced the schemes in an attempt to meet job-loss targets face exacerbated problems in implementing their academic plans.
Scotland's young people, including graduates, are continuing to emigrate, with the country suffering a decline in its population. In a paper delivered to the Social History Society Conference in Oxford, Isobel Lindsay of Strathclyde University says this century, Scotland has had a net loss of almost 2 million people. In 1987, 34 per cent of the university's graduates gained their first job outside Scotland.