Sign up at www.fundscotlandsfuture.org
Fund Scotland’s Future
NUS Scotland has launched a campaign to protect colleges from proposed cuts of £34.6m in the Scottish Government’s draft budget.
Through a national online petition at www.fundscotlandsfuture.org, NUS Scotland is getting students, and all those who care about college funding across Scotland, to sign up.
We’re calling on the Scottish Government to support the campaign, to reverse the proposed cut, and at least protect college funding at current levels. It also calls on all MSPs to support the campaign, to stand together with their local students, and to make college funding a personal priority through the current budget negotiations.
The campaign launch comes a year after NUS Scotland’s last college funding campaign, ‘Our Future, Our Fight’, was launched, when 80,000 emails were sent to MSPs, and resulted in an additional £40m being put back into the college budget.
Robin Parker, NUS Scotland President, said: “The campaign ask for ‘Fund Scotland’s Future’ is important, but simple. The Scottish Government, and all MSPs, must work to at least reverse the £34.6m cuts proposed to colleges next year.
The reason for the campaign is just as simple, and even more important. At a time of incredibly high youth unemployment, and in a budget that was billed as focussing on economic recovery, cuts to colleges of any size are simply unjustifiable.
“Colleges have the ability to change communities and lives, whether it‘s by creating opportunities for people to enter post-16 education for the first time, or by giving them the opportunity to return to education to learn new skills for new jobs.
"While we’ve welcomed commitments to protect places and student support, these don’t go far enough, and the budget still proposes cuts of tens of millions of pounds. If we’re to protect our colleges and our college students, we need to protect their overall funding.
“This time last year, 80,000 emails were sent to MSPs showing the strength of feeling over cuts then, they sat up and listened, did the right thing, and reversed the cuts. This year we need to see the same action.
"As of Monday morning MSPs will have begun to receive emails from their constituents and we want as many as possible to publicly sign up, in response to the clear ask from their constituents. They need to recognise the huge role college have to play, and amend the budget to reverse these proposed cuts. Fundamentally, they need to work together to fund Scotland’s future.”