So, as some of the people that I regularily run into in Rinkchat might know, when I finish Uni this year I will be returning to Scotland to do my PhD.

Whilst having a trawl through the BBC online site about Scottish Universities, I found this recent story, the upshot of which is that, basically, if a Uni has too many applicants, it gets fined. If the Uni gets too few applicants, it gets fined.

This seems a little bit odd to me. Fair enough, I can accept that if a University takes on a lot of students then the government support it will need is less and therefore they'll have to pay back the government funding that is surplus to requirements. But why would you fine a University fore having less attendees than it expected - why not let them keep hold of the money to put into various incentives to attract more students, or (God forbid) improve the quality of teaching.

Does this sort of madness happen worldwide, or is it just the U.K. that sees fit to hamper the education system with mad regulations?

Also, just out of interest, has anyone ever seen privately funded courses - where the student is paid to study by a particular company or industrial body - with an obligation to work for them post graduation? I've only ever seen it done by the student targeting a specific employer, never the other way round. (Except in postgraduate study, but thats a slightly different kettle of fish).

Bo"almost finished....now, about that salary?"urne