Thank you for inviting me to discuss—virtually—the impacts of Covid-19 and the pandemic on our colleges, universities and students.
I will begin by saying how proud I am of the huge contribution that our colleges and universities and their staff and students are making in the fight against this global pandemic. Their leadership, and the willingness of staff, researchers and students to step up, has been saving lives. As the committee will have seen, our colleges and universities have quickly moved from face-to-face learning to delivering learning through online platforms. Our universities are at the forefront of the research to tackle the health emergency and have been supporting our national efforts in testing for Covid-19, too. They have delivered essential equipment including hospital beds and personal protective equipment to support local care provision, and they have supported students facing financial hardship.
We have all seen how students and staff have been on the front line delivering care and health support in our hospitals and care settings, and that they have been there for the most vulnerable in our society through outreach support and support for local food banks. They have all have made a tremendous contribution to Scotland’s response.
Throughout this pandemic, I have been in regular contact with our college and university principals, the Scottish Funding Council, Universities Scotland, Colleges Scotland and our unions, including the National Union of Students Scotland. That has allowed the Government to quickly shape the actions that are needed to support our students and institutions. I have also spoken directly with college and university chairs, including through discussions in the past few days.
As the committee might know, I established the further and higher education Covid-19 ministerial leadership group, bringing together our agencies, representatives from community learning, colleges and universities and the unions, including the NUS, to formally develop our collective leadership to short, medium and long-term issues arising from the pandemic.
As you would expect, the needs of Scotland’s learners are at the forefront of my mind. Many of our students are facing increased financial hardship as a result of this emergency. Many are, understandably, anxious about their finances, their education, their health and that of their family and friends. To support students at this time, the Scottish Government has announced a £5 million package to address the financial hardship that has immediately been felt by some students. I am continuing to work on what other appropriate measures might be implemented. We have written to all college and university principals and private sector student accommodation providers, asking them to consider sympathetically those students who are remaining in accommodation and those seeking to break their agreements. The committee will be aware that Parliament is including provisions concerning emergency notice periods for student accommodation as part of the current emergency legislation for Covid-19.
I am also aware that the impacts of Covid-19 are felt most acutely by those who were already in our more deprived communities. We cannot let Covid-19 blight the educational opportunities of our most vulnerable young people. I have therefore asked Professor Sir Peter Scott, our commissioner for fair access, to consider the impacts on our widening access ambitions.
These are unprecedented times, and they call for unprecedented actions. It is vital that we help all our students to stay online to maintain their learning and training. That is why the Scottish Government has invested £5 million to help vulnerable families to tackle connectivity and access issues, which we hope will capture many students. I have also written to all our digital service providers to start a discussion on what support they can offer Scottish learners and Scotland’s economic recovery.
We all recognise that colleges and universities will be cornerstones in the national recovery. The latest output and employment indexes show some of the largest declines on record in Scotland and the United Kingdom, exceeding the downturn of the 2008 recession. The legacy levels of unemployment will depend on how quickly the economy recovers, how the furlough schemes are wound up and also, crucially, how our colleges and universities are deployed.
The Scottish Government will do all that it can to enable institutions to provide essential education opportunities for our young people and to support reskilling and upskilling for the post-Covid-19 world. We are blessed with world-leading institutions, which are impressive economic assets in their own right. The economic footprint of universities is estimated by Universities Scotland at around £7 billion in gross value added each year. College graduates also make a hugely significant contribution to Scotland’s wealth as well as our social and civic wellbeing.
It is vital that we protect that strength in the Scottish economy. I do not underestimate the scale of the challenge that our colleges and universities face. I know that the committee heard from Karen Watt about the Scottish Funding Council’s initial analysis of the financial impact on institutions. The financial and other challenges facing them will only be compounded by leaving the European Union. Audit Scotland suggested in its report that was published in September 2019 that Brexit will result in £211 million in potential lost funding for the university sector alone. The Scottish Government is now taking steps to support Scottish tertiary education to deal with that challenge.
We announced a one-off £75 million increase in funding for Scotland’s universities on 6 May to protect their world-leading research against the financial impact of Covid-19. That will help to secure jobs and training, replace lost income and help our universities to focus their efforts on the critical research needed to fight the outbreak of coronavirus and to support society and the economy post-pandemic. The UK Government must now likewise play its part in protecting that vital sector. While we, in Scotland, will pull together the support and resources that we have at our disposal, considerable fiscal intervention by the UK Government is urgently required. The sector has issued an SOS.
If assistance from the UK Government is not forthcoming soon, the very sectors that we will rely on to get us through the pandemic and to support the country’s recovery after it will be severely weakened and diminished. I am afraid that the Prime Minister’s recent promise that the UK will become a “science superpower” will simply disappear into the ether like a puff of smoke if that urgent assistance is not forthcoming. The committee will be aware that the UK Government announced a package on 4 May, but the Scottish Government found that disappointing, as did the university sector, as it fell far short of recognising the full scale of the challenge that our universities face. None of the £3.6 billion of Covid-19-related consequentials that have come to Scotland to date has been allocated as support for further or higher education.
I have been in regular discussions with my UK counterparts, to set out the challenges facing tertiary education and research in Scotland. We will continue to do all that is possible to support our colleges, universities and students, because we recognise their vital importance now and in the economic and social recovery that is to come. I look forward to answering your questions.