NEWS FROM YES SCOTLAND
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Free higher education can be secured only with independence, say Academics for Yes
A No vote in September would seriously threaten the future of Higher Education across Scotland, leading academics warned today.
In addition to policies pursued by the Westminster government that simply do not work for Scotland, the very real danger of a UKIP victory in England in this year’s European elections could mean an end to EU funding for university research.
The warnings come from Professor Bryan MacGregor, of Aberdeen University, and Professor Murray Pittock, of Glasgow University.
The two professors are part of a founding group of some 60 from Scottish academia and learning who today [Monday, February 17] launched Academics for Yes in support of the independence campaign.
Professor MacGregor said: ‘I am not a politician. I am not even a political activist. I am an academic and I am a citizen. I had no intention of taking an active role and certainly not a public role in the referendum campaign. But the negativity of the No campaign has compelled me to make a public stand.’
A third professor in the new group, Joe Goldblatt, of Queen Margaret University in Edinburgh, said: ‘If the right to offer free education for the citizens of Scotland is to be preserved, full and independent economic control over these matters must be gained through independence.
'Only then will there be further assurance for future generations that the values of the past hold true today and for the foreseeable future through remaining strong advocates and leaders through universally free colleges and universities in Scotland.’
Orkney-based Donna Heddle, Professor at the University of the Highlands and Islands and Director of Nordic Studies, said: ‘I’m backing this campaign because it’s the right thing to do. Independence is the only way that academia and research will flourish in Scotland.
'We must work together in learning all the way up from primary schools to research to create new opportunities for the people of our country.’
Speaking at the launch of Academics for Yes in Glasgow, Professors MacGregor and Pittock said: ‘There is every reason to believe that Yes will create improved and more secure funding. Higher education is one of Scotland’s many success stories: our research is among the most highly cited in the world, and our Government ceaselessly promotes it.'
They explained their worries over the No campaign and its negativity and their growing concern at the negative language Better Together use over the potential of Scotland’s science and universities under independence.
‘The SNP Government is strongly committed to science and universities, seeing them not only as a beacon of status internationally, with five of our universities in the top 200 worldwide, but also as engines of economic growth and international co-operation,’ they said.
‘The creation of innovation centres, funding of postgraduate studentships linked to economic development and recent agreement on co-operation in science with Hong Kong are all clear evidence of this.
'Also, abolition of tuition fees and expansion of funded places linked to social justice and widening participation show a commitment to inheritance of a democratic intellect at odds with the increasingly marketised state of higher education provision elsewhere in the UK.’
They added: ‘From evidence-based policy to renewable energy, the role of science and universities is gaining importance to creation of a smart, successful and socially just Scotland.
‘It’s reasonable to ask those who think independence would be bad for our universities whom they would expect to implement different policies than those prevailing in the rest of the UK: £9000 tuition fees for all (like...