'Ancient' universities see their grip on Scottish Parliament loosen

The big five - Dundee gets its status thanks to its historic links to St Andrews - got just 59 seats between them, 46%, in this month’s Scottish elections.

That, however, is still a very impressive haul. Glasgow has long produced some of Scotland’s most senior politicians. It continues to do so. It alone accounts for 21% of members in Holyrood - the same proportion as Oxford and Cambridge combined in Westminster.

Scotland’s newly elected parliament has been hailed for its diversity. It has more women than ever before - including the first of colour. And Holyrood has its first permanent wheelchair user, among other disabled members.

But how well do our MSPs really reflect the society we are - and should they really have to?

For some years The Herald has been crunching the numbers about our elected politicians, about where they went to school or university and what jobs they did before they were elected.

Our aim? To get a broad idea of the backgrounds of those who make up what is, in effect, our ruling political class.

Yesterday we reported that 18% of MSPs were privately educated - four times the national average. And we also revealed politicians disproportionately attended state comprehensives which do best in controversial league tables which rank schools by exam results.

We have details for the university education of 128 of our 129 MSPs. One politician, Marie NcNair, the nationalist who represents Clydebank and Milngavie, did not respond to questions about her background. 

Our figures capture all those politicians who have spent time at university rather than all those who have graduated. We are looking for shared experiences of higher learning, not qualifications.

Some politicians went to colleges which have been turned into universities or merged with them. We have counted them. Others had further education or professional training which was every bit as exacting as university educations. They do not make our cut.  Because we are interested in campus experiences, the hotbed of student politics and relationships.

Are university degrees now practically essential for politicians? But Politicians are a pretty educated bunch. Far more educated than the general population. 

Paul Cairney is a professor of politics and public policy at Stirling University and has long studied the backgrounds of politicians. His own institution, one of Scotland’s modern universities, produced six of this year’s Holyrood crop.

“MSPs are far more likely than the public to have been to University,” Mr Cairney said.

“This does not seem like a problem in itself, since University education helps to develop many of the analytical and presentational skills required of MSPs.

"Perhaps slightly more concerning is the concentration of MSPs in a few ‘ancient’ Universities, which might suggest that election planning begins with access to elite networks at an early age.”

Mr Cairney is talking about the relationships and experiences of people who went to universities like Glasgow. This single institution has long boast boasted such vibrant culture.

Its political and debating culture generated the likes of Donald Dewar and John Smith for Labour or Charles Kennedy for the Liberal Democrats. And now one of its law graduates, Nicola Sturgeon, dominates Scottish politics.

Ms Sturgeon’s new cabinet of eight is dominated by the graduates of the ancients. She is backed by Social Justice Secretary Shona Robison and Health Secretary Humza Yousaf from her own alma mater.

Rural Affairs Secretary Mairi Gougeon and Constitution Secretary Angus Robertson went to Aberdeen.

Deputy First Minister John Swinney went to Edinburgh, Justice Secretary Keith Brown to Dundee and Finance Secretary Kate Forbes to both Cambridge and Edinburgh.

Education Secretary Shirley-Anne Somerville studied at Strathclyde while Transport Secretary Michael Matheson attended Queen Margaret University before getting two more degrees at the Open University. 

The SNP, however, has the lion’s share of the 21 politicians who have not come through a university conveyer belt in to politics.  These include people with real life experience of difficult jobs or other life experiences.

Take Paul McLennan, the new member for East Lothian. He went straight from school into banking, a career which requires substantial study. Or Karen Adams, who represents Banff and Buchan who has juggled caring responsibilities with becoming proficient in British Sign Language to act as translator for her father.

Ms Adams, like several members has been a lifelong learner, doing Open University courses in her spare time. Another SNP MSP, David Torrance, has a diploma in engineering from Adam Smith College before pursuing a career in industry. Graham Dey went from school in to journalism.

The Conservatives too have a handful of MSPs with experience of work rather than study. Its former leader Jackson Carlaw did not go to university, but worked in business. So did new member Sharon Dowey, who held senior management positions in retail.

Labour was once the party which delivered the most politicians from manual trades. Its current Holyrood group - though it has one or two members were mature students - is entirely university-educated. Its leader and deputy leader, Anas Sarwar and Jackie Baillie, both went to Glasgow.

There are also politicians who have veered well away from the usual route for higher education. Ariane Burgess of the Scottish Greens got her MSc from Gaia University, an alternative online institution whose degrees are not always recognised by employers but which focuses on environmental topics. 

Few of our MSPs have studied abroad. Newly elected Mairi McAllan, formerly Ms Sturgeon’s special advisor and now a minister, studied at Ghent in Belgium as well as Glasgow. Her SNP colleague Elena Whitham went to Concordia in Montreal while Green co-leader Lorna Slater studied in British Columbia.