University places for Scots students to be slashed under SNP government budget cuts

dailyrecord.co.uk:

Hundreds of university places for Scots students will be slashed as part of government budget cuts, an SNP minister has admitted.Shona Robison told MSPs today that 1,200 spaces for first year undergraduates would be axed.Students living permanently north of the Border do not pay tuition fees - unlike those in England - if they win a place at a Scottish university.But the government only funds a limited amount of spaces - with demand already far outstripping supply in the most popular courses like law or medicine.A record 33,880 Scots students started their first, full-time degree course in 2021-22.But higher education institutions are becoming increasingly reliant on students from overseas - who pay full fees - to balance their books.Robison told members of the Scottish Parliament's education committee that 1,200 additional university spaces were created during the 2020-21 coronavirus pandemic.They were funded after the number of school pupils awarded top marks in Higher exams rocketed after the usual exam system was temporarily suspended.The Finance Secretary said: "At the time of Covid there became a different process of continual assessment and therefore there was a big spike in those who were gaining university entrance."We used some of the Covid monies to fund those additional 1200 places for universities in order to address that spike. "We've maintained those places for two years without the Covid funding available, so that Covid funding ended from the UK Government, and we've managed to keep those places going for two years, but the position is not a sustainable one. "So that spike in places due to Covid is going to have to return to the pre Covid levels of university places."It is not clear if more university