Lifelong learning in our universities and colleges
Colleges and Universities can help build a fairer and greener Scotland.
Driving forward progress on our key missions to hit net zero and tackle child poverty.
High quality education is a social and individual good which should be free and accessible to all, regardless of income and background. Education at all levels can be a genuinely transformational ingredient to a successful society.
For too long, the Scottish Government has failed to provide a clear direction for universities and colleges, leaving them at the mercy of the financial marketplace. The Scottish Greens will set out a clear vision which values the role further and higher education will play in building a fairer, greener Scotland.
The ability of colleges in particular to play their role in that delivery has been significantly held back by a decade of chronic problems in industrial relations. That is why Scottish Greens have already delivered a wide ranging expansion of fair work criteria conditioned on Government funding to improve working conditions for all across universities and colleges.
- Oppose any attempt to introduce tuition fees for Scottish students. Everyone should be able to access high quality education at every level, regardless of their ability to pay.
- Improve college governance, including an increase in the number of reserved board places for staff and student representatives. We will also reserve places for local councillors, strengthening the links between colleges and the communities they serve.
- Support colleges to maximise their income from the private sector without undermining their core mission to meet the needs of individual students and wider communities.
- Maximise opportunities for adults to stay in or rejoin the workforce through upskilling and retraining opportunities.
- Oppose the marketisation of higher education and artificially competitive funding mechanisms such as the Research Excellence Framework and Teaching Excellence Framework, and actively participate in cross-party discussions led by the higher education sector to find a sustainable funding model for universities.
- Enforce new fair work conditions for colleges and universities secured by Scottish Green MSPs earlier this year. These include opposing the use of fire and rehire, addressing workplace inequalities, and banning the inappropriate use of zero-hour contracts.
- Suspend interest payments on student loans during maternity and parental leave to tackle the additional costs which overwhelmingly fall on women.
- Support students during the summer through a national hardship fund and the opportunity to rebalance bursaries and extend loan payments to stretch over the summer months.
- Support international students by continuing to place pressure on the UK government to enhance and expand the post-study work visa programme.
- Build on the work that universities in Scotland have done in welcoming Palestinian and Ukrainian students by providing government support for scholarships.