Investing in Scotland’s Universities - Scottish Funding Council

SFC news published since 2018. See SFC archived content for earlier news articles.

Photocollage of university students. On the left a girl with red hair looks at the camera. In the centre a young black man is in a classroom with a laptop open in front of him. On the right two students are sitting on the grass with laptops opened.

Photos: University of Aberdeen, University of Glasgow, University of St. Andrews

The Scottish Funding Council (SFC) has today published indicative allocations for Scotland’s universities.

As planned, today’s announcement confirms the removal of 2,500 temporary places that were made available in 2021-22 to support additional learners through the Covid-19 period. These learners will be graduating at the end of this academic year.

With an increase of £12.9m from the Scottish Government budget and a repurposing of monies previously associated with that cohort of students now graduating from the system, SFC has been able to increase the investment in each individual learner (the unit of teaching resource).

Today’s indicative allocations also announce an increase of £11.3m in core university research and innovation funding which will be allocated across the Research Excellence Grant, the Research Post-Graduate Grant and the Knowledge Exchange and Innovation Fund.

Commenting on today’s announcement, SFC Chief Executive, Francesca Osowska, said:

“We recognise that universities are operating in a difficult financial environment with pressures across the full range of funding streams that drive our institutions. Today’s funding announcement will enable them to increase investment in each individual learner, protecting the high-quality of teaching for which our universities are renowned, while also securing Scotland’s position in delivering world-leading research and supporting new discoveries through innovation.”

A copy of the full announcement can be found on the SFC website.