Scottish Week: the likely importance of the upcoming Scottish election for higher education.

This second blog in HEPI’s Scottish Week was kindly authored by Sir Paul Grice FRSE, FAcSS, Principal and Vice-Chancellor at Queen Margaret University.

You can find the first blog in the series here.

The Scottish parliamentary elections of May 2026 come at a point when the Scottish higher education sector is facing acute financial challenges. At the same time, civic groups are rightly pushing political parties to make skills, competitiveness, and higher education reform central to their manifestos.  Together, this creates an opportunity for the incoming government to work with the higher education sector to secure a sustainable, forward-looking funding framework, founded on the wider economic and social dividends that framework would unlock.

But while achieving a sustainable higher education funding model is crucial – and is currently being pursued through the Joint Universities Scotland-Scottish Government Future funding framework partnership – universities cannot sit still and wait for such reform. So, at Queen Margaret University, we are developing a new strategy that will deliver the change needed to ensure that our institution can remain both financially sustainable and true to our purpose.

We were hugely encouraged to be named Herald Higher Education Institute of the Year in 2025, but we know we have to change, indeed to transform, the university. Our strategy is focused on three connected areas of change. First, we are reshaping our operating model so that our services can be delivered efficiently and consistently across on-campus, hybrid, online and partnership routes. We aim to exploit digital technology and AI to connect our systems and data, enable automation, improve insight and agility, and to reduce running costs while protecting, and where possible improving, the quality of the student experience.

Second, we are redoubling our already tight focus on responding to demographic change and to Scotland’s future skills needs. This means building on our established strengths in areas such as health and wellbeing and the creative industries, while expanding into new high-demand fields.

Reflecting our distinctive capabilities, our focus will not be on computer science or engineering, but on applied, human-centred and professionally oriented education that prepares people to use, lead and shape these technologies in real-world settings. Modular and stackable provision will support lifelong learning, CPD and ‘earn as you learn’ pathways.

Finally, our strategy recognises the importance of place. By deepening partnerships with employers, public services and communities, and by leveraging the City Deal-funded  Edinburgh Innovation Hub that we are delivering in partnership with East Lothian Council, we aim to anchor growth in the Lothians and build on our contribution to sustainable economic development.

Partnership and collaboration have always been key to our success. One great example is our work with East Lothian Council, Edinburgh College and other anchor institutions to deliver community wealth building in the Lothians. Indeed, we are proud that QMU is at the forefront of applying Community Wealth Building principles. With our long-standing commitment to social justice and economic inclusion, and research and knowledge exchange focused on delivering practical solutions, we are well-positioned as a model for the national implementation of this policy, which is rooted in people-centred economic development.

This all might sound great, but the scope, reach and impact of our strategy is being severely curtailed by financial constraints.  Without a sustainable funding model, QMU – along with universities across Scotland – simply cannot fulfil its full potential.

Let me give you an example. QMU produces healthcare practitioners and healthcare research and innovation of course. But beyond that – and with the right funding – our particular expertise and partnership approach places us well to help enable care to move away from hospitals into community settings; to drive a greater emphasis on wellbeing and the prevention of ill health; and to support the redesign of healthcare pathways through the effective use of healthcare data and technology-enhanced solutions. 

This is precisely the kind of evolution in approach that Scotland needs from its universities. The point is as applicable to our role with the NHS as it is to other public services and industry. Yet almost everything about Scotland’s current funding mechanism for teaching and research – from the level of funding to the way that funded numbers are decided upon – is short-term by default, is a barrier rather than an enabler of innovation and makes all but the smallest change high risk for institutions. This is why the Framework is so important to QMU and all universities across Scotland. It is long overdue. Significant change is hurtling towards us all, whether it’s the scale of demographic change impacting school leavers and an ageing workforce, or the wax and wane of Scotland’s industry sectors and what that means for jobs, places and economic growth. By setting universities up for agility, success and sustainability for the next 20 years, you will also be giving all those who depend on universities the best possible platform for the future. 

At QMU, we are pushing forward with change to ensure our sustainability, but without more robust funding, we will be sailing with only one sail – able to move, but unable to reach the full potential of the social and economic impact that we can and should offer Scotland.  Right now, QMU and other universities are forging ahead with determination, and with our vision firmly focused on the far horizon – but with only one sail catching the wind. We can move forward, but not at the speed or with the strength Scotland needs from us.

The upcoming Scottish elections offer an opportunity for the next government – whoever forms it – to help us raise the additional sails we need for full momentum. With more sustainable funding, we can set a fuller rig: one that lets us accelerate innovation, strengthen communities, and power Scotland’s social and economic development more forcefully. Universities are ready. The winds of ambition are there.

Want to understand more about Scotland and higher education?

In 2024, to mark 25 years since the devolution of powers to Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland, HEPI and The Education Group London published the collection of essays ‘Evolution of Devolution‘. It provides a comprehensive analysis of how higher education policies in England, Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland have evolved over the past quarter of a century.