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Scotland's business academics are politely sceptical about Chancellor Gordon Brown's surprise announcement of plans for a top business school in Dunfermline.

Mr Brown, who was launching Labour's campaign in the Dunfermline and West Fife by-election, said a world-class college to train international business leaders could be sited in the town.

Scottish Enterprise is helping to assess the feasibility of a centre for executive education and leadership, but the construction firm behind the scheme said the picture was not yet clear.

A senior academic, who was unwilling to be named, said: "I don't think a single head of school will be losing sleep over this. It's a bit of puff around election time. Do they really know what the market is and what happens already?"

Irvine Lapsley, head of Edinburgh University's management school, said: "We will watch to see what happens. When you start with a blank sheet of paper, it can be really challenging to make the significant inroads that have been declared for this project."