Scottish independence: could we all have a bit of it, please?

Scotland’s 1st minister, Alex Salmond, with local schoolchildren at the official launch of the Confucius Institute at Glasgow University, in which SNP students carried out a mock independence referendum. Photograph: Murdo Macleod

In not considerably more than two years, Scotland could be an independent nation. And even if Scots vote towards independence in the referendum subsequent year, it is inevitable that Scottish ties with England will loosen additional. Many of Scotland’s university leaders, though careful to preserve their political heads down, are closet unionists – a paradox, provided that the independence of Scotland’s educational system was maintained after the union of 1707. The four ancient Scottish universities – Glasgow, Edinburgh, Aberdeen and St Andrews – made a important contribution to Scotland’s nationwide identity that truly only Oxford and Cambridge could match in England. And whilst the Oxbridge contribution frequently seemed to divide, elite speaking to elite, the university contribution in Scotland was a unifying force.

It may be a myth to describe Scotland’s resistance to fees as proof of deep-rooted social attitudes. Despite the fact that its public sector is more substantial, there is little proof that there is a stronger dedication to social solidarity than in England.

1 explanation for Scottish universities’ closet unionism is exactly the absence of fees. Many dread that with out fees they will be denied the level of sources loved by their English peers and rivals. So far they have tiny to complain about. But who is aware of what the long term holds – a price-cutting publish-independence government in Edinburgh, or a profitable legal challenge to their capacity to charge higher costs to English college students?

A second purpose is that the big divide between no charges in Scotland and high fees in England is misleading. The recent funding regimes in both countries are unstable and unlikely to final in their present varieties. England’s has both to lurch into a complete-blown market place or revert to a more managed form. Scotland’s relies on some reasonably heroic assumptions about levels of public expenditure.

In any case, significantly of the infrastructure of greater education is nevertheless organised on a United kingdom basis, notably the analysis councils, but also staff unions and institutional “mission groups” such as the Russell Group. In truth, because devolution was introduced, the Scottish and English larger education systems might even have grow to be much more, not less, alike.

The drive for “world-class” analysis excellence (nicely, eminence), the emphases on widening participation and teaching quality, the obsession with graduate employability and exploitable investigation, above all the inexorable pressures of globalisation have possibly produced a much more unionist technique than ever just before. It may not be surprising then that Scotland’s universities secretly want to remain element of a larger Uk method. Even if an independent Scotland had been to be far more internationalist in its outlook than its over-mighty small-Englander southern neighbour, it could in no way rival the United kingdom as a worldwide base.

But Scottish larger training most likely has to accept that devolution will boost, no matter what the end result of the referendum. Closet-unionism will not perform lengthy-term. In fact, the variations among independence and devolution-max could be relatively small. The crown-and-pound independence envisaged by Alex Salmond could easily be stretched to keeping United kingdom-broad investigation councils.

But this not just about Scotland. The United kingdom state, as represented by the Westminster-Whitehall-media bubble, desperately wants reform. Scottish devolution, or independence, is just 1 component. Increased training, no longer correctly autonomous, has been subordinated to the United kingdom state’s agenda – in terms of funding, regulation, even core purposes. Nevertheless these aAlternative points of reference – civic, regional and (sub-Uk) nationwide, European and worldwide – are badly required, true pluralism, not a industry-media mandated hierarchy. The policy ambiance is stifling – and perhaps the wider intellectual environment, as well. Place simply, we need fresh air, new contemplating to replace stale neo-liberal orthodoxy.

In excess of the many years, practically with no realising it, we have moved uncomfortably shut to having a national greater training services. Universities are funded, regulated, managed and governed in a lot the exact same way. The result is an encroaching conformity. The Brave New World industry in England will make it worse. Everyone will want to make the various-but-exact same advertising and marketing pitches and claw their way up the identical league tables. In contrast, Scottish independence, or devolution-max, adds real range. That is what the whole of the United kingdom wants.

• Peter Scott is professor of higher schooling studies, Institute of Training

Scottish independence: could we all have a bit of it, please?