Academic staff 1,980. Administrative staff 2,130. Students 19,130 – undergraduates 13,930, postgraduates 5,200. Undergraduate offer rate 85.1 per cent.
A public research university in the middle of Scotland, established in 1961 on a 320-acre campus west of the city centre, with four faculties – Arts and Humanities, Medicine and Health Sciences, Science, and Social Sciences – containing 26 schools and over 300 courses. The campus features a large lake on its southern edge and “The Place”, a central outdoor meeting point flanked by concrete steps. Facilities include an SA cafe bar, a 24-hour library, a nightclub venue, a canteen called the Student Kitchen, a 24-hour launderette, an essentials shop and a coffee shop called Matey’s.
Midsticks is three years into an unprecedented crisis. Income last year was £301m against expenditure of £362m, following a £74m loss the year before – a spend dominated by staff costs, pension provision and interest on loans taken out for a London campus that failed and a biomass energy generator that never worked. Lower than planned enrolment and higher than planned drop-out have deepened the hole, the main teaching block is described in survey reports as “deteriorating fast” and may have to close permanently, and the Vice Chancellor of ten years resigned in February after a vote of no confidence from the UCU branch and a scathing letter to Court from the professoriate demanding change at the top.
The interim Principal has been clear that survival means a smaller Midsticks – fewer schools, fewer buildings and fewer staff – and that every option is on the table. The university expects to make a £34m loss this financial year, and its own forecasts suggest that without change it will be losing £45m a year by the end of the decade.