Sir Stewart Sutherland, Edinburgh University principal, said although he welcomed the 600 million grant this year from London that he perceived a "shift in the goal posts for institutional research".

He said: "Scottish universities need to operate on a similar playing field and offer a comparable research base to that of our competitor institutions in England, where research strengths have been firmly backed by their funding council. This now means that, despite out strengths in both teaching and research we have received, so far, an allocation below the anticipated rate of inflation."

And Labour promised a better deal on education and has given it to England ONLY