The Scottish Budget and the Future of Learning: What Was Said and What Wasn’t
Published: 26 January 2026
Commentary
Professor Catherine Lido examines the Scottish Budget, announced on 15 January, in the context of education: what was said (and what wasn't), writing that while learning was not absent from the budget, there was a lack of substantive discussion on higher education, critical AI literacy, lifelong learning or a ‘curriculum for life’.
Money is tight. Times are hard. For many the future is uncertain - with rapid advances in AI and digital technologies transforming the world of work and learning faster than policy and practice can keep up.
For many people in Scotland, these changes are not being experienced as opportunity, but as risk: to jobs, to the future of how we learn, and to the standards and trust that underpin a healthy knowledge economy. Last year’s budget committed to expanded investment in education, skills and culture (e.g. £20million for Creative Scotland investments). Yet across the education and lifelong learning sector, the lived experience has felt very different. Universities, colleges and cultural spaces of learning continue to report intense financial pressure. Schools are openly discussing shortened learning weeks to save money. Teachers are still spending their own income on classroom supplies. The central question for this year’s budget is therefore not simply whether funding exists on paper, but whether students, teachers, lecturers, parents and working people seeking to upskill or secure employment will actually feel it.
Tensions in delivery
The budget exposed some practical tensions between the ambition of a fair and equitable Scotland and the costs and cuts facing us in reality today, and an absence of sector-wide Higher Education and Lifelong Learning issues. These contradictions, such as free ‘Learn to swim’ programme when community pools are closing in areas facing deprivation (e.g. Bo'ness, Alloa, Aberdeen with more proposed in Falkirk, etc.), highlight the government’s broadest challenge: delivery. Without stable, long-term investment, for example across the full lifelong learning ecosystem, then policy promises become futile. Perhaps most concerning in the announcement was the absence of serious engagement with the implications of AI and advanced technologies for education, employment and the investment here needed such that Scotland does not fall behind trying to react to future losses instead of future-proofing. These forces are already reshaping labour markets and learning systems. Without a coordinated national strategy for lifelong learning and workforce transition, with a joined-up plan for the Higher as well as Further Education sector in a joined up ‘Curriculum for Life’-type approach, Scotland risks widening further inequalities.
Budget priorities: NHS, cost of living, childcare and college investment for skills/economic growth
The gist of the budget surrounded a ‘fairer Scotland.’ In her final budget announcement on 15 January, Finance Secretary Shona Robison focused on priorities that resonate widely across society; namely, NHS investment, stifling the rising cost of living, and providing accessible, equitable childcare, breakfast clubs and activities. Popular measures, such as the taxation of private jets, symbolised this commitment to fairness. The speech also acknowledged the constraints imposed by UK Government funding structures and the rising cost of energy as significant barriers to Scotland’s ambitions for accessible and flexible public services.
Within this context, learning was not absent, but it certainly felt unevenly presented, almost exclusively on a college/apprenticeship for skills narrative, for instance for mitigating losses in the gas and oil industry. The economic narrative focused on colleges as the most central vehicle for economic recovery, growth and employment. Robison highlighted expanded college funding as a means of supporting young people into education, employment and better-paid work. This can be seen by critics to deflect heat from potentially diverted funds toward the bail-out of Dundee University - coming off the back of several previous years of sector cuts. Skills development was further largely framed through targeted retraining programmes, particularly for workers in oil and gas (e.g. in Grangemouth) as part of Scotland’s commitment to a ‘just transition’ toward renewable energy. The budget also referenced a new “accelerator model” for island communities and emphasis on clean energy investment, as well as a comprehensive infrastructure investment plan aligned with local authority and community needs, but without discussion of tech, AI or digital literacies or reskilling.
Universities and adult learning- a conspicuous silence?
These commitments overall reflected a coherent economic message on reducing inequalities, and a socially inclusive strategy investing in transport, childcare and social support for hard to reach or marginalised people, but one that appeared to be narrowly focused on specific sectors and a narrow definition of skills and learning. There was little mention or critical consideration of the way AI and tech is currently affecting learning and job prospects - this budget could have been delivered pre-AI, and for universities, there was no consideration or reassurance of the crises facing the sector. A review of the Higher Education sector is underway, but it is clear that current funding models are not sustainable.
Beyond a nod to the £20 million allocation linked to Dundee and a brief reference to expanded apprenticeships, higher education and adult learning were largely absent from the fiscal narrative. This silence speaks volumes given the realities facing the sector; declining student numbers, visa obstacles to international students, rising operational costs, funding deficit for Scottish domiciled students. A myriad of factors have led to huge institutional financial strain extending well beyond Dundee, affecting even the healthiest university budgets. Add to this the pressures of changing ways in which young people are engaging in and with learning in this digital and AI-driven world, and urgent demand for adult retraining in response to such automation and AI-driven job displacement. Were these topics avoided due to their complexity or due to lack of safeguarding solutions? And is the current Higher Education review a placeholder until post-elections?
We need a call for a comprehensive lifelong learning strategy - for more investment in adult learning as with the Lifelong Learning Entitlement - addressing funding bias toward traditional levels of study and away from lifelong learning and modular credit (funded) models. Thankfully, both tuition fees and international levies appear to be ‘off the table’. But, we will be unable to address economic and social gaps in Scotland, let alone attainment gaps, without serious investment in and re-consideration of joined-up funding models for FE and HE sectors. The budget felt like a pre-election panacea to please all, and yet there was no substantive discussion of adult and lifelong education (upskilling, re-skilling and transitions), despite accelerating technological disruption and the urgent need for continuous reskilling across the workforce.
Author
Professor Catherine Lido holds a Chair in Psychology and Adult Learning, within the School of Education at the University of Glasgow. She is Associate Director at Urban Big Data Centre (UBDC) and Deputy Director of the PASCAL Observatory for Europe, and is also a Centre for Public Policy Affiliated Researcher. Catherine maintains a role with the British Psychological Society Political Society Section and a regular media presence on BBC radio and TV.
First published: 26 January 2026