POLITICIANS must up their game and ditch the marketised model which has left deficits soaring and jobs in peril across Scotland’s universities, trade unions have warned.

The exhortation comes after a tumultuous week in the sector, as the University of Dundee announced plans to axe 20 per cent of its workforce — 632 jobs — in a bid to close a £35 million black hole in its budget. 

Over the weekend, SNP education secretary Jenny Gilruth announced £10m in extra funding to the sector in a bid to ward off compulsory redundancies, but with eight of the country’s 18 universities running deficits totalling £218m, STUC general secretary Roz Foyer has warned ministers “cannot just keep putting sticking plasters on gaping wounds.”