ACCORDING to your report, there is a “wave of opposition to the Higher Education Governance Bill, which is currently going through Holyrood” (“New university laws ‘will not hand powers to ministers’”, The Herald, September 17). I would characterise this opposition in simple terms – the bosses don’t like it. So what else is new when it comes to attempts to increase accountability and transparency in the higher echelons?
There has been a great deal of scaremongering on the provisions contained in this Bill, not to say what I consider to be misrepresentation by organisations such as Universities Scotland, which purports to speak for Scotland’s universities.
The most important part of any university is the staff, and not just academic staff but all of the different categories of employee that modern universities require to provide excellent teaching, learning, research and pastoral care. This is the case in Scotland’s universities, and the changes proposed in the bill have the support of staff and student organisations alike. It speaks volumes that the bosses take the opposite view – what do they have to fear, I wonder?
Bill Stewart,
17 Benalder Street, Glasgow.
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