Sustaining Jobs and Securing the Future of Scotland's Universities

That the Parliament expresses its deep concern at what it sees as the growing crisis facing Scotland's higher education sector, including the reported threat of significant job losses at the University of Dundee, the University of Aberdeen and other institutions across Scotland; notes reports that hundreds of jobs have already been lost at Dundee, and that up to 111 academic posts are threatened at Aberdeen as part of ongoing restructuring and cost-reduction programmes; recognises the anxiety, uncertainty and distress that these proposals are causing for staff, students and communities; further recognises the evidence of declining staff morale across the sector, with, it understands, many workers reporting exhaustion, insecurity and a loss of confidence in institutional leadership and governance; believes that those who teach, research, support students, maintain campuses and sustain university life should not be made to pay the price for failures of governance, financial mismanagement or short-term decision making; notes reported concerns regarding increasing casualisation, workload pressures, threats to pensions and job insecurity across the sector; further notes the calls on university leadership teams, governing bodies and the Scottish and UK governments to work collaboratively with staff and students with Fair Work principles as their foundation, to develop long-term solutions that protect jobs, safeguard teaching and research, strengthen transparency and accountability, and secure a sustainable future for what it considers is Scotland's vital higher education sector.