Who got that cash?

Queen Margaret University College, Edinburgh, has been awarded a £3 million National Health Service contract to set up a Scottish School of Audiology.

Christine Cnossen, head of the School of Social Sciences, Media and Communication, said: "This initiative, combined with our expertise in speech sciences, means that QMUC is on track to become an international powerhouse in speech and hearing sciences teaching and research."

QMUC will set up the school in collaboration with the UHI Millennium Institute and Robert Gordon University, backed by five-year funding from NHS Education Scotland.

UHI will provide core undergraduate modules for a new BSc, and both institutions will work with QMUC on continuing professional development courses. QMUC is advertising for several new posts, including a chair and senior lecturer, and will advertise for two more lecturing posts next year.

Professor Cnossen said she believed the bid had been successful because of the consortium's "can-do, positive approach".

The school's key aim is to alleviate the critical shortage of trained audiologists. These are healthcare and education professionals who deal with hearing and other neural system disorders.

The Scottish Executive wants the school to produce 80 fully trained graduates over the next five years.

The first graduates from the course are expected to take up posts within the NHS in Scotland in 2009.