Fuming students blast Stirling’s meagre spending in sports department

They got the least amount of funding last year

departments excellence funding scotland spending sporting stirling university

Furious sports students are shocked at the revelation their academic school received the least amount of funding of all the academic departments last year. 

Tight-fisted uni chiefs only allowed Stirling’s School of Sport a miserly expenditure of £2,439 for the academic year 2013/14, despite Stirling being prized as Scotland’s University for Sporting Excellence.

Stirling’s sports facilities are some of the best in the country, but a lack of funding in the School of Sport could lead to the department falling behind

But what’s even more shocking is the comparison with the School of Natural Sciences which receieved a whopping £15,848 of funding in the same year- six times the amount received by the School of Sport.

Third year Jamie Haughey, who studies sports as part of a joint honours, said: “That surprises me a lot actually, you would have thought with Stirling being Scotland’s Uni for sporting excellence that the figure for the department would have been one of the highest.”

Funding in the School of Natural Sciences was six times that of funding for the School of Sport

But others were less surprised by their school’s funding.

Third year Business Management student, Michael Dogan, was happy his department received the second highest amount of funding at £9234. He said: “Given the recession and generally fragile economic conditions I can see why there’s extra funding being pumped into creating the next generation of business owners and managers.”

Is the School of Sport in the rough?

According to a source from the University, the expenses shown includes “staff and non-staff costs for the General Account, Research Accounts, Enterprise Accounts and Internal and External Initiatives for the academic year 2013/14”.

The full list of expenses for each academic school was:

  • School of Applied Social Science- £5,380k.
  • School of Arts & Humanities – £7,874k.
  • School of Education – £3,308k.
  • School of Natural Sciences – £15,848k.
  • School of Health Sciences – £5,843k.
  • Stirling Management School – £9,234k.
  • School of Sport – £2,439k