One of Scotland's most respected actors, Brian Cox, has spoken out against what he calls the "disgraceful" reduction of top-level acting courses in Scotland and has called for the government to intervene in what he describes as a scandal.

Cox, the Bafta and Emmy award-winning star of films such as Troy, The Bourne Supremacy and Manhunter, said he is angered that the Queen Margaret University (QMU) in Edinburgh, which honoured him last year, is to end its high-level, practical "conservatoire"-level acting courses.

In July last year, Cox was made an honorary doctor of letters at Queen Margaret University, but now has said he is wondering "I am a doctor of what exactly?"

The QMU is still teaching drama courses, including a BA in drama and theatre arts, but next year's intake of 12 acting and performance students will be the last to receive conservatoire teaching of the standard approved by the National Council for Drama Training.

The university's theatre production course, also a conservatoire-level course with an annual intake of 18 students, will cease to be accredited by NCDT after this month.

Professor Anthony Cohen, the principal of the university, has said that the QMU does not receive funding equivalent to drama schools in England, Wales and Northern Ireland and this has played a major role in the change.

There has also been issues over accommodation for the course, with the closure and sale of the Gateway Theatre, used for teaching, which had been shut for health and safety reasons after a fire inspection.

Cox, currently shooting in St Andrews for a production for the BBC, said Scotland needs two conservatoire-level acting schools, and recent cuts and turmoil at the other major centre for acting study, the Royal Scottish Academy of Music and Drama in Glasgow (RSAMD), had also filled him with unease.

He is worried that young talent such as James McAvoy - whom he described as "the new Sean Connery" - will struggle to be trained properly in Scotland.

"I am really p***** off with what is happening. I live in America right now, and I didn't even know what was happening to the QMU until James McAvoy told me about it in an e-mail.

"Last year they gave me a doctorate and then in no time at all this has happened, and what is happening is disgraceful," he said.

"Given the wealth of talent that has come out of Scotland in the last 40 years, what is happening is scandalous.

"The QMU used to have a very good school, some good actors, and now they are saying they don't have the building for it - but I don't think you need buildings, you just need the talent and the ideas.

"If the QMU cannot do it, then I think Napier University also in Edinburgh should take it on: I don't want to get into the politics of universities, but I think that should happen in order for Edinburgh to have its own conservatoire, which I think is vital for the future of acting."

Cox is an ambassador for Screen Academy Scotland, a collaboration between Napier University and the Edinburgh College of Art, and believes that acting needs to be taught at a conservatoire level.

Cox, originally from Dundee, added: "It's very depressing that this is happening when the country is considering independence, and culturally I think that independence has to be seen. Glasgow and Edinburgh have to have their own conservatoire schools.

"When I was a boy, I felt I had to go to London to go to drama school, because then Glasgow was as alien to me as London was: but that has all changed now.

"Now there is all kinds of to-ing and fro-ing between east coast and west coast. Really what I wanted to do was get away from Dundee, but you don't have to do that any more: the quality of teaching is available in Scotland, you don't have to search for it."

Professor Cohen said: "The costs of conservatoire are prodigious, and therefore everywhere in the UK other than Scotland drama conservatoire students are funded to the extent of £13,500 per year. In Scotland, the rate is £7500 per year."