The Scotsman Bulletin Wednesday November 13 2024
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00:00Hello and welcome to the Scotsman's daily video bulletin for this Wednesday.
00:04My name is Dale Miller.
00:05I'm Deputy Editor at the Scotsman and I'm joined by our Education Correspondent Callum
00:10Ross.
00:11Callum, I want to talk to you about a really strong and important exclusive you've got
00:17for us today, but we should reference the front page of today's Scotsman firstly.
00:22And we led on obesity levels in Scotland climbing to a new record high, 32% of the adult population
00:30now classified as obese.
00:32That's up from 24% in 2003, so quite a significant rise over the past two decades.
00:40And it also comes as research found the number of Scots worried about running out of food
00:45had risen as well, tied back into obviously a significant part of the country dealing
00:52with the cost of living crisis.
00:55It's an important story.
00:56That leads the Scotsman.com as well as WellBe quitting.
01:01And we see on the front as well, Callum, the exclusive from you, it's about the Edinburgh
01:06University head and their pay going up at a time when it may not politically make a
01:14lot of sense.
01:15Can you talk us through that one?
01:16Yeah, that's right, Dale.
01:17I mean, I think there's been controversy or certain questions about the size of Sir Peter
01:25Matheson's salary at Edinburgh University pretty much since the moment he was appointed
01:32back in 2018.
01:34It was £342,000 then.
01:40That's just the salary, you know, not the full total package, double the Prime Minister's
01:46salary if you want to look at it like that.
01:49Now, to be fair to Sir Peter, I think it's important to point out that, you know, he
01:54hasn't set his own salary.
01:57I don't think any of the university principals in Scotland do.
02:00That's set by remuneration committees established by the universities, and they tend to feature
02:07kind of members of the ruling court.
02:09Also, you know, should point out, Edinburgh University is one of the, you know, top 30,
02:14top 50 universities in the world, close to 50,000 students, 16,000 staff, revenue of
02:22over a billion pounds each year.
02:24So it's a big organisation.
02:26And, you know, Sir Peter also has turned down pay rises in, I think, three or four years,
02:322019, 2020 and 2022.
02:36But last year he did accept a 3% pay rise.
02:41That took his salary up to £348,000.
02:45That's his basic salary and a total package of £418,000.
02:51And now our story today has revealed that a further 5% increase was agreed earlier this
02:59year by the remuneration committee and accepted by Sir Peter.
03:04We think the university isn't going to go into the numbers, but we think that's worth
03:08about £20,000, the increase.
03:11The problem for him and the university, I think, as you kind of referenced at the start,
03:15is that this has sort of emerged at a time when Sir Peter's really kind of overseeing
03:21big cutbacks at the university.
03:23He wrote to staff this summer telling them they were going to be cutting spending across
03:29all areas.
03:30There's basically a recruitment freeze, not quite a total freeze, but big constraints
03:37on recruitment.
03:38And that's because of the pressures in the higher education sector, the financial pressures
03:46And there's also, it's got to be said, there's been already a fair amount of negative headlines
03:51about spending in relation to the principal.
03:58There's been coverage of the amount spent on the upkeep of the home that's provided
04:01for him in Edinburgh's Regent Terrace.
04:05He gets that for free, he gets his bills paid for him, and all the rest of it.
04:11I think that was the point made by the staff representative, Sophia Woodman, the president
04:17of the Edinburgh UCU branch, when I spoke to her yesterday.
04:21She thought that staff would be horrified at this uplift and kind of pointed out that
04:26he doesn't, with that kind of salary, he's not affected by the pressures of the cost
04:32of living crisis like other staff members.
04:36And she pointed out that staff are really struggling dealing with these cutbacks across
04:41the university.
04:42So I think it will be, it'll certainly be noted with interest by a lot of staff at the
04:47university.
04:49Callum, I know you've written specifically about the situation at Edinburgh University
04:53here, but I mean, there's a wider narrative around cuts across the sector, isn't it?
04:58You wrote last week about Robert Gordon University up in the North East making significant cuts
05:05as well. And it does feel, coming into the next couple of months in the Scottish budget
05:11at the start of next month, that we may not have heard the last of that cuts across some
05:16of our most prestigious universities.
05:18That's right. I mean, you know, we don't know the details of what's going on at every
05:23university, but certainly, you know, we've heard about job cuts, like you say, at Robert
05:28Gordon University, Aberdeen University, you know, had its issue with the accounts earlier
05:34this year. It couldn't even guarantee that it would continue as a go in concern for the
05:39next year. You know, it's a 500 year old institution.
05:43There's talk of kind of mergers at the University of the Highlands and Islands.
05:47I think we've mentioned the restraint at Edinburgh University, it's pretty much across
05:53the board. And yeah, I mean, unless, certainly the message from the sector is, unless
05:59something changes in terms of the funding, the way higher education is funded in Scotland,
06:04that's only going to get worse.
06:06But I mean, I guess it should be pointed out that stories like this about university
06:10leaders and their, you know, big pay increases kind of undermines that messaging that's
06:16coming from the sector in terms of restraint there.
06:21You can read Callum's exclusive story at Scotsman.com.
06:24And if you want to read all our education coverage, there's an education tab in our
06:29navigation bar that you can get all the very latest across the sector, including our
06:35ongoing coverage of the pressure on private schools as well through the VAT rise that
06:41will happen at the start of next year.
06:43Callum, thanks for joining us.
06:45Thank you, everyone else, for tuning in.
06:47Follow us on Facebook and Instagram and go out and buy a copy of The Scotsman for all
06:52the latest coverage tomorrow.