The Scottish National Party (SNP) is unlikely to have much of an appetite for grappling with university funding problems after turning around its fortunes ahead of next year¡¯s election, critics have warned.

With the Holyrood parliamentary vote due in May 2026, the party which has held power for 19 years has revived in the polls having trailed Labour a year ago.

It now looks set to be the largest party, potentially holding enough seats to form a minority government, with Reform forecast to beat Labour into third place.

Although the SNP has?recently entered into discussions?with universities about the funding challenges they face, much is dependent on the outcome of the election, with little expected to happen while campaigning is under way.

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The scale of the challenge was recently revealed by the Scottish Funding Council, whose annual report on finances showed institutions are forecasting a collective ?12.9 million deficit for 2025-26, down from the ?51.5 million surplus expected in 2024-25.

If re-elected, the SNP ¡°will face major and growing challenges that it was not able to address even when it had the enormous political capital that followed the independence referendum¡±, said James Mitchell, professor of public policy at the University of Edinburgh.

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¡°Higher education will compete with a very long list of other issues for attention, ideas and resources.¡±

But he claimed the SNP had a track record of ¡°avoiding difficult questions¡± and ¡°evading painful choices¡±, leaving institutions to fend for themselves.

University funding is an issue that ¡°none of the parties have really grappled with¡±, said Alison Payne, research director at the thinktank Enlighten.

¡°If I was being slightly cynical, I would say up until a year ago it looked more like Labour would be the largest party.?And so why would the SNP look to do anything and take on this problem? Because if they could get through another year, it¡¯s somebody else¡¯s issue to fix.

¡°I would hope that perhaps after the election, some of the parties will appreciate that they have to get to grips with this,¡± she continued.?

¡°But it¡¯s whether those doors can remain open depending on what people say during the election campaign.¡±

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If nothing happens, Payne added, ¡°it will become too late and we¡¯ll have no other option but to introduce upfront fees¡±.?

The SNP has repeatedly refused to back down on its long-standing policy of free tuition fees for students, leaving few other options for finding more money for universities, given the strains on public finances.

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Mary Senior, Scotland official at the University and College Union (UCU), said that while there is a ¡°growing acknowledgement¡± from ministers about the problems universities face, waiting until after the next election for answers will be ¡°too late¡±.

She said she hoped the Scottish budget, now due in January 2026, will include extra money for universities.

The SNP government did intervene earlier this year,?injecting over ?60 million?via the Scottish Funding Council to support the University of Dundee when it was on the verge of bankruptcy.

Michael Keating, emeritus professor of politics at the University of Aberdeen, said another ¡°crisis like Dundee¡± could put university funding on the political agenda during the election campaign.

But it was unclear whether money would be granted to other Scottish institutions if they found themselves in similar financial peril.

The SNP held on to two seats in Dundee during the last UK elections, leading some to claim that electoral concerns in part motivated the party to intervene.

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If another university faces a similar crisis, ¡°there will not be a lot of scope for generous support¡±, Keating said.

helen.packer@timeshighereducation.com