Chamber and committees

On our engagement with universities and the Parliament, Mr Briggs will recall Martin Whitfield’s topical question about the University of Edinburgh that I answered a number of weeks ago. I will repeat the main points that I made in my answer that are relevant to all our universities. Although they are autonomous institutions that are responsible for operational decision making, we strongly encourage them to engage constructively with trade unions to seek resolutions to the disputes, in line with fair work principles, as has been raised today. I would also emphasise that compulsory redundancies should be considered only as a last resort, after all other cost-saving measures have been fully explored—that is absolutely the key point.

We recognise the financial challenge that our universities—indeed, universities across the UK—face, but they are important employers and are hugely important to the economy, and the staff at universities are key to teaching and research. It is the people who make the organisations, and we will continue to engage with the universities, as autonomous institutions, on these points. We will also need to engage with the unions, and I am grateful for the engagement that I have had with them in recent weeks.

As I said, with regard to the January intakes, I want to get a better sense—beyond anecdotal feedback—of what is happening with other institutions. That is in the context of the UK Government’s intention to reduce the duration of graduate visas from two years to 18 months for most international students, which will apply to applications from January 2027. If that is already having an effect, we need to explore why that is.

I did, and I appreciated the dialogue in the chamber, convener. I hope that you will forgive me, but we have not had a huge amount of time between that debate and today’s appearance at the committee. I undertook to look at the matter afresh, and I reaffirm that commitment today. I will update the committee as soon as I have details to share.

The SFC is involved in those considerations as well as the Scottish Government. I appreciate Mr Greer’s focus on those important issues, and I have appreciated my engagement with him on them in relation to the TET bill, not just around this table but in bilateral meetings, including in recent days.

More widely, the Government is determined to see and deliver more fair work where we can using our soft power, because, unfortunately, employment law is clearly fully reserved under the Scotland Act 1998. If we had such powers in the Scottish Parliament, we could make further impact in such areas. Recently, the Government has been determined to deliver good outcomes for our college staff, whom we deeply value. Lecturers’ pay was settled before my appointment. I am also pleased that, in recent weeks, two unions accepted the pay offer for college support staff, which was sufficient for settlement. That settlement is important, because we deeply value support staff’s role in institutions across the education sector, including in our colleges. All those things matter when it comes to fair work and fair pay.

As we approach stage 3 of the TET bill—and Mr Greer will recall that I gave him this undertaking in recent days—I want to be very clear in giving as much assurance as I can about the Government’s focus on enabling greater fair work in our college sector and about what we can do within the powers that we have.

The cabinet secretary might want to say something further on that. I am grateful to Mr Greer for raising the point. That recommendation has not been pressed with me in my dialogues with unions since my appointment to my current role, but I would be happy to consider that and to write to the committee on it in the new year.

Internationalism creates innovation. The Elsevier report, which was a remarkable piece of independent work, showed that our Scottish universities collaborate extremely well. As far as I recall, we collaborate three times more than the global average and two times more with the business community than the global average. The collaboration of Scottish universities internationally and within the UK is remarkable and one of our strengths when it comes to research.

The intangible benefit of people coming together from across the world and thinking, creating, innovating and collaborating is also enriching for academia, wider society and our economy. That is why international students matter. They are not just financial units that are important to universities, which are, of course, autonomous institutions; they are enriching in the round.

I caution Mr Briggs and the committee more widely against getting ahead of the announcement that the Government will make very soon on the sustainability work. I am mindful of the fact that we are working collaboratively and in sync with Universities Scotland and others. It is important that we respect all partners in the process. If the Parliament and the committee can be patient, there will be an update on that work very soon.

First of all, we should never have left Erasmus+. That was very clear. I was minister for Europe for 18 months, and I and the current cabinet secretary who followed me have had multiple meetings with UK Government ministers, at which we and representatives of the other devolved Administrations stated that it made no sense economically, socially or otherwise for us to leave the Erasmus+ scheme. The UK coming out of the Erasmus+ scheme was literally a waste of time. However, we welcome the news that we are back in.

The Cabinet Secretary for Constitution, External Affairs and Culture had a call with UK ministers this morning. We are awaiting more details regarding how the new arrangements will apply to Scotland, and the UK Government needs to be forthcoming and provide us with more information. However, the move is welcome, of course. It is a positive thing.

Did the member want to ask anything specific about the Scottish education exchange programme?

I commend the committee for its work on widening access, which was discussed in the recent debate in Parliament. We discussed a number of points, including the positive progress that has been made towards meeting the widening access targets and the 37 per cent increase in the number of Scots from deprived areas who entered full-time degree courses at university in 2023-24. That is a 37 per cent increase since the Government established the commission on widening access, and it is obviously significant progress. The continued provision of free tuition for Scots-domiciled people who go to university and into state-funded education is a collective investment in our people and workforce, and it continues to encourage people to go to university on the basis of their ability to learn and not their ability to pay.

First of all, you will appreciate that an amendment in your name to the Tertiary Education and Training (Funding and Governance) (Scotland) Bill that relates to your latter point was accepted at stage 2. I cite that as a point of reference for how we are moving forward on consideration of the credit system.

I have also had significant engagement with the college sector, including on those points. Perhaps of most interest to Mr Briggs will be for me to note that I visited Edinburgh College in Granton, where I attended an hour of the Scottish Funding Council’s board meeting; I also took the opportunity to meet the college principal and discuss those matters. That is in addition to my engagement on those points with Ayrshire College on its campus; at the College Development Network awards, at which I spoke with various stakeholders from the college sector; and during other engagements, such as with Glasgow Kelvin College, which was early after my appointment.

I appreciate the points about consideration of the credit system. Presuming that the bill will be passed early in the new year—I look forward to Mr Briggs voting for it, now that he has secured that amendment—we will proceed with that review.

The wider budget considerations have been very much in the public and parliamentary domain since my appointment on 23 September, with the SFC report coming out during the same week and the Audit Scotland report coming out the week after. As I said, I have had significant engagement with individual colleges—some of which I cited—as well as regular engagement with Colleges Scotland, as has the cabinet secretary, including in recent weeks. Concerns, considerations, ideas and proposals from the sector have been and are being given due consideration as we work through the budget considerations.

Cabinet secretary, would you like to say any more?