Agricultural university could bring economic boost

EDUCATION: Scottish rural enterprise university idea gets backing of SRUC

The creation of a Scottish rural enterprise university could add an extra £4.5 billion a year to the national economy while also helping to close a major farm productivity gap between Scotland and several other countries.

Findings from a new report which benchmarked Scotland’s farm sector performance against the Netherlands, Sweden and New Zealand, showed the Scottish industry suffering heavily in comparison.

It found that while Scotland generates a gross value added (GVA) of 30,331 euros (£26,101) per job, the Netherlands achieves 64,169 euros (£52,220) and Norway returns 99,676 euros (£85,775).

Research and development investment into the primary and agricultural sectors also differs widely between the countries, with the UK spending 6.65 euros (£5.72) per capita, compared with Norway investing 53.37 euros (£45.92) and the Netherlands spending 30.51 euros (£26.25).

With rural university status playing a major role in the success of the comparator countries, report author BIGGAR Economics concludes that the establishment of a rural enterprise university in Scotland could mean an additional £4.5bn GVA entering the Scottish economy each year.

“This is a compelling analysis of the prize on offer,” said Professor Wayne Powell, chief executive and principal of Scotland’s Rural College (SRUC). “Strategic collaboration between government, industry and expert centres is a model followed in these countries and has been shown to be transformational, creating step changes in economic benefits and growth. The same approach can work for Scotland, too,” he said.

Having announced plans last year to transform SRUC into a rural university, with the first phase of this process already under way, Prof Powell said he was delighted with the findings from the report.

“SRUC stands willing and ready to work with all interested parties to turn this concept and opportunity into reality,” he added.

SRUC stands willing and ready to work with all interested parties...

Professor Wayne Powell, chief executive and principal of SRUC, found the report to be “a compelling analysis of the prize on offer”.