This article appears as part of the Lessons to Learn newsletter.

As anyone with even the most passing interest must be aware, Scotland’s university sector is in serious trouble.

Across the board, institutions are looking to make savings in the face of significant financial pressures, with the threat looking genuinely existential to at least some universities across the country.

Much of the current crisis is rooted in the sector’s addiction to exorbitant fees being paid by foreign students – a situation that developed in no small part because Scottish Government funding for the tuition of Scottish students doesn’t even nearly cover the cost of delivering their courses.

However, changing policies and behaviours at a national and international level mean that the steady supply of foreign cash is now drying up, and universities are going through a painful withdrawal period as a result.

The message, repeated over and over, is clear: major changes are needed to ensure that the university sector is viable for the future.

Some of those changes will be organisational: the University of Aberdeen has, for example, decided to cut the number of separate schools within the institution, and some believe that mergers may have to be considered in the months and years to come.

But a lot of the savings are going to come........

© Herald Scotland