A government is never stronger than after it has been elected, or re-elected. A statement which has become something of a cliché in politics, but some cliches retain a core of their original truth, despite overuse.

So it is with John Swinney’s new SNP administration. The Nationalists fell back in terms of seats and votes, but they still hold a commanding position at Holyrood and face a divided opposition. Ideal conditions to think radically and act fast.

There are many knotty problems which Swinney’s reshuffled ministerial team face, but let’s pose a pertinent question in education: does Scotland have too many universities?

If we take the list of institutions funded by the government’s quango, the Scottish Funding Council (SFC), Scotland has 19 universities. That includes some institutions without the word ‘university’ in their title but let’s use that figure.

Is that ‘too many’? A comparison shows Scotland has a higher number of universities per head of population than England, Wales and Northern Ireland. It’s a similar picture compared to small independent countries like Ireland, Denmark or New Zealand. For example, Scotland has 19 universities for 5.5 million people, England 130 for 57.9m folk.

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That doesn’t necessarily mean the answer to the question posed above is ‘yes’. It has been argued that Scotland’s universities are the jewel in the nation’s crown, making the country very well educated, attractive to inward investors, a magnet for overseas students, and attracting lucrative research grants. 

However, that may not hold across all of our universities. It must be considered in the context of the current financial difficulties they all face, and the........

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