Education and Skills Committee

Meeting date: Wednesday, January 27, 2021

Official Report 681KB pdf

---

Impact of Covid-19 on Further and Higher Education

Welcome back to the meeting. We move to item 8. I welcome Richard Lochhead, Minister for Further Education, Higher Education and Science; and Roddy Macdonald, head of the higher education and science division, and Alan Scott, senior policy manager at the Student Awards Agency Scotland, both from the Scottish Government.

I invite the minister to make an opening statement and ask members to indicate that they wish to ask questions by putting an R in the chat box.

Good morning, convener. I hope that you can hear me okay.

Yes.

I thank the committee for the opportunity to give evidence this morning. Much has happened since we last met. We have supported many students to return home for the winter break, and we have also set out how best to enable their safe return for term 2. Our European Union exit transition also came to an end.

The new coronavirus variant has thrown up serious challenges, and our colleges and universities and the community learning sector, as well as all students and staff, have a significant role to play in our national effort. The enormous amount of work that has been undertaken in recent months by the staff in our institutions, the accommodation providers and our students has helped to limit the spread of the virus and ensure everyone’s safety, and it should not be underestimated in such challenging circumstances. For that, I thank everyone involved.

We published guidance on 15 January and some frequently asked questions on 22 January to provide the clarity that is required by college and university staff and students and their families about the arrangements for the start of term 2. For most students, the message was and remains for them to stay at home. Across the country, we are asking people to limit their movement and interactions, so those students who returned home for their winter break should not return to term-time accommodation unless they have been advised to do so by the university or college. The only exceptions to that are the small number of students whose attendance is absolutely critical and whose education cannot be delivered remotely or postponed. It is worth remembering that all arrangements are subject to the future review of Covid-19 conditions in Scotland.

With learning being predominantly online throughout January and February, I understand that that is not the education experience that students expect or deserve. We must always remember that this has also been a difficult time for college and university staff, professionally and in terms of looking after their own wellbeing, and I have been impressed with the way in which they have gone above and beyond in providing their students with an education in the most trying of circumstances.

On student wellbeing, colleges, universities and accommodation providers have a duty of care to students. We expect institutions to ensure that students are fully aware of the new measures that are in place and that they have the support that they need to study remotely.

We have further supported student mental health and welfare by making available additional resources, and we continue to support National Union of Students Scotland’s think positive initiative, which now has a Covid-19 focus.

I have asked accommodation providers to treat students who are living away from home sympathetically and to take their circumstances into account so that they are not disadvantaged. I welcome the many examples of universities and other providers offering significant discounts, rebates or refunds to students, and I strongly encourage other providers to consider how they, too, can treat their students sympathetically. I understand that many students are now taking advantage of the provisions in law to withdraw from accommodation leases, and I have written to providers and students to remind them of that provision.

A positive development was confirmed yesterday. The Government announced £30 million of additional funding to support institutions and others that have lost revenue because of accommodation costs, and to provide further support for students who have been affected and find themselves in hardship because of the crisis. That will allow college and university students who require extra support to be able to access it, and it will help to relieve the pressure on institutions that have faced additional costs arising from rent refunds and rebates and other accommodation issues.

I am pleased to tell the committee that I am creating a short-life task force that will assess the impact of Covid-19 and the pandemic on student hardship. I want that route to determine whether the measures and mechanisms that are currently in place are sufficient to mitigate student hardship in further and higher education at this time. The group will convene for the first time during the next few days.

Being aware of the potential long-term impact on educational attainment and the financial impact that the pandemic is having on our colleges and universities, I have agreed to the setting up of a task force to consider those issues while looking to term 3 and beyond.

Today’s new higher education statistics for 2019-20 show that a record number of students were enrolled at Scottish institutions and that the number of Scotland-domiciled students was at a 10-year high. Members might be aware that, for this academic year, the Universities and Colleges Admissions Service also reported that acceptances by Scotland-domiciled students are at a record high for institutions in Scotland.

Importantly for higher education, the statistics also bring the good news that the widening access interim target in higher education that 16 per cent of full-time first-time degree entrants to Scottish universities should be from our 20 per cent most deprived areas has been exceeded. I thank everyone in the sector who has helped to ensure that that important milestone has been reached.

I have said this to the committee many times but it remains absolutely true: the challenges for all in further and higher education have been unprecedented, as has been the response. It is to the enormous credit of all the agencies, the college and university staff, the students and the unions that their response to the most difficult of circumstances has been so helpful and positive. It has made a huge difference. I greatly appreciate that, and I look forward to working with them and the committee throughout the remainder of the academic year.

Thank you, minister. We already have seven members indicating that they have questions, so if you were succinct with questions and answers, it would help us to ensure that everybody gets their opportunity this morning.

The first questions are from Oliver Mundell.

10:30  

Does the minister have any information on the number of people applying for university next year? In anecdotal feedback, I have had suggestions both from young people and from one institution that application numbers to university for next year are down, most likely as a result of fear of a repeat of the situation that we have seen this year, whereby some young people have spent more time at home than at university, as well as the concerning scenes that we have seen in relation to Covid testing. Has the minister picked up on that?

I thank Oliver Mundell for that question, which highlights an important issue in relation to the impact of the pandemic on the plans of people—particularly young people—in Scotland for next year.

The UCAS deadline for higher education was, of course, extended; it is not until the end of this month. We therefore will not have any official statistics in relation to the first window for a few days yet. However, I have no doubt that many young people will be reflecting on where we are at the moment and taking a bit more time before they make a final decision on their plans. We are in a very challenging period—we are in the middle of a national lockdown—so I understand why young people may be thinking like that.

Nonetheless, it is important that we encourage our young people to take decisions as quickly as possible, to submit their applications to UCAS in the remaining time available and in future windows, and to look to the future. Although I know that it is very challenging just now and that it does not seem so obvious in the middle of the pandemic, we will get through this. It is really important that our young people take advantage of the further and higher education opportunities in Scotland.

Although we have not yet had any specific feedback, we are—as the committee can imagine—paying close attention. We await those initial statistics from UCAS in the next few days.

Some institutions and courses will be more affected than others—particularly practical courses, which people feel have been so limited this year that there has been no point in being on them. Will you look at additional financial support and at the support that is available for such courses and institutions so that they are not affected in the longer term by what is likely to be a one-year issue?

We will look at all those issues. As I said in my opening remarks, one of the reasons why I set up the short-life task force was to consider the impact in term 3 and the challenges that our colleges and universities are facing.

Colleges, of course, face even bigger challenges, because the short-term nature of college courses means that there is no built-in time—so to speak—to catch up, as there would be for a university degree over two, three or four years.

I assure Mr Mundell that the purpose of the task force is to look at that and to work out how we can help as many young people as possible to complete their learner journey in this academic year. In addition to that, the task force is, of course, looking at what the options to help people might have to be if other plans have to be put in place. The Scottish Government has to work with our institutions in relation to any financial consequences of that.

Are you mindful of the importance of protecting the long-term future of smaller further and higher education institutions?

Yes—absolutely. We are working very closely with the Scottish Funding Council on the impact of the pandemic, as well as on wider challenges that have been there for some time. We are getting regular updates. I assure the committee again that our colleges and universities will get through this. The Scottish Funding Council, in particular, has shown enormous flexibility in the way in which it is delivering the funding to our colleges to help them get over their challenges.

I understand that, last summer, provision was made for the potential extension of dental courses. At the time, dental schools in Scotland advised students that that was a possibility. I have been informed by a constituent that it is now actively being considered; that is the information that one dental student has reported to me.

Specifically for dental courses, and for other practical courses such as medicine, will the minister confirm whether there is going to be a requirement to extend completion dates and course lengths in order for people to complete the practical elements that it is not possible to complete right now?

Clearly, the lack of face-to-face teaching has had an impact on some courses more than others. Daniel Johnson is quite right to highlight dentistry, which is mentioned most frequently to me as being affected. I know that the universities that have dental courses are looking at contingency plans to help dental students to graduate. However, I also know that that is challenging at the moment, because, quite clearly, there are some practical aspects of that course that students have to complete before they can qualify.

The Cabinet Secretary for Health and Sport and her colleagues are closest to this, because they engage much more closely with the universities on medical and dental degrees. I would be happy to send some follow-up information to the committee. However, I know that the University of Glasgow and other universities are actively considering the issue.

I would be grateful for that information, particularly if it could be specific about which institutions are considering it and what the likely length of deferment might be.

Obviously, the inability to conduct face-to-face teaching is widespread throughout the sector. Has the minister a specific figure for the percentage of undergraduates and postgraduates who have returned since the Christmas break, and what does he expect that figure to reach in the coming weeks? It is not going to be a static picture.

That is a difficult question to answer precisely. However, the guidance that we laid out for the return this term anticipated no more than 5 per cent of students being on campus across Scotland. We have no reason to believe that that has been breached to any great degree. We are keeping a very close eye on that. From all the feedback from our universities and, especially, from our colleges, we know that there are very few students on campus at the moment.

When it comes to students who stayed over for Christmas—who did not return home—I think that around 6,000 or 7,000 stayed in purpose-built accommodation, although, of course, many others will have stayed in private rented accommodation. From meeting families and from students, I have dozens of anecdotes about those who are still living at their student accommodation because they did not go home for Christmas in the first place.

It is difficult to give a precise number, but that figure of 5 per cent is our estimate.

I will leave my questions there, but I add to my request: I understand why the minister’s health colleagues would be better placed to answer questions on medicine and dentistry, but it would be very useful to have in writing from him details about any similar deferments for other courses that have practical elements, such as in science.

Yes.

Minister, when you came to the committee last May—I think it was then; certainly, it was before the end of the 2019-20 academic year—you expressed a little concern about the variability in how further and higher education institutions were using their student hardship funds, as there might have been an indication that students at some universities and colleges were finding it easier than those at others to access those funds. Given that we are now quite far on from that, in terms of both the phases of the hardship fund moneys that have been made available and the pandemic situation, do you now have a clear breakdown by institution of the number of requests that were made, of how many were granted and of how much was paid out? You obviously know how much each institution got to administer the funds, but do you now have a clear idea of how they administered them? If you do, are there remaining concerns about variability?

In recent days, I have seen the figures, and the money is going out the door—there is clearly a need for hardship funds. As I said, the picture is variable across all institutions: our colleges, as well as some universities, have put a lot of their money out the door while some of the latter perhaps have some balance left in their funds. After yesterday’s announcement, we are propping those funds up by a further £20 million. From the £30 million that was announced, £10 million goes to our institutions to help them to offset some of the losses from accommodation refunds, cancellations and so on, and £20 million goes via the SFC to institutions for hardship funds.

I have spoken to many of the teams that allocate those funds and that deal with the applications in institutions around the country. The applications have been made a lot more flexible over the past few months, and the limits on the amount of money that can be given out have been lifted. I do not detect major issues at the moment, but we are keeping the process under review. As I mentioned in my opening remarks, we have set up a task force, which will meet for the first time in a few days and will bring together various advisers who work in universities, as well as student representative bodies and agencies, to consider what issues have arisen out of the hardship funds.

One of my issues is the co-ordination with other funds in society that are available to students, because the picture of where they can go can be complicated for them. Awareness raising—ensuring that all students are aware that the funds exist and that they can access them if they qualify—is another issue. If the committee wants me to write back to it on the matter, I can give you more detail.

It would be useful if you could provide further information in writing—perhaps some version of the data, which you mentioned that you had seen in the past couple of days.

My second question is specifically about college students and access to remote learning. A number of lecturers and students have raised concerns with me about unequal access to remote learning, for all the reasons that we are familiar with in relation to schools. When the committee and Parliament discussed the issue in relation to schools, it was mentioned that COSLA had tried to assess the level of need—how many laptops would be required and how many families would require assistance with setting up a home broadband connection, for example. What equivalent assessment has been done to figure out the actual needs of college students in relation to remote learning? Do we know how many college students needed a laptop a few months ago and how many still need one now?

The colleges, in particular, have put a huge amount of effort into ensuring that laptops have been distributed to students. We launched a £5 million digital inclusion fund, which helped 13,500 post-school learners—13,000 of whom were college and university students—and we have a record of how many have been helped through our funds. The universities and colleges have topped up those funds with their own and have sourced their own laptops.

The Scottish Funding Council is working on the issue of digital access, which is significant—as part of the budget discussions, the colleges have raised with us the fact that that work is on-going. Again, families who have students in the household can access other sources of funding; I am talking only about the funding that we have issued through further and higher education sources.

I appreciate the information about the funding that has been made available, but my question was specifically about the assessment of need, in which you said—I think—that the SFC is involved. Has a clear assessment been done? Was a number produced at any point that is equivalent to the number that COSLA produced for the number of school pupils who needed a laptop?

I have not seen such a figure from the SFC yet, because it has been a moving feast, with a lot of on-going work. As I have said, colleges and universities make laptops available through their own funds as well as through Scottish Government funds. I know that Colleges Scotland has considered the issue, too, and it might have more up-to-date figures than I have now.

Are you finished, Mr Greer?

I will leave it there, convener. We can follow up the issue in writing.

10:45  

In November, when the committee heard evidence from the minister about the impact of Covid on universities and colleges, he said that the Scottish Funding Council was advising him. Today, the SFC has advised that universities’ losses because of Covid amount to about £132 million. Is the £10 million of support that you announced yesterday not woefully inadequate? That is less than 10 per cent of what the SFC says our universities need.

[Inaudible.]—pandemic that is taking its toll on the finances—

We missed the start of your response, minister. Will you start again? I think that you started to speak before your microphone was on.

The pandemic has had an enormous financial impact across society and in our colleges and universities. The Scottish Government has been keen to help where it can. We provided more than £160 million of support to our colleges and universities—that was more than £100 million for our universities and more than £60 million for our colleges—before yesterday’s announcement of £30 million.

Of the £130 million that Iain Gray referred to as being the cost of the pandemic to universities, £32.5 million is estimated to relate to accommodation issues such as rent refunds. We have provided £10 million towards that; that is not the full £32.5 million, but we will consider what more we can do to help. Of course, the draft budget will be presented to Parliament tomorrow.

I absolutely accept that this is a really challenging time. When I spoke to the committee previously, the projected deficit for our universities as a result of the pandemic was about £176 million, whereas the latest figure is down to £50 million. At the beginning of the pandemic, we talked about potential deficits of hundreds of millions of pounds, but the picture has been moving because of the nature of the pandemic. I assure Iain Gray that we are paying close attention to the financial challenges that our universities and colleges face.

In their submission, the universities have made it clear that they will need about £200 million of additional funding in tomorrow’s budget to achieve sustainability. I will not ask the minister whether that will be in the budget, because I know that he would say that we will find out tomorrow.

The minister could fix a simple component of the financial problems that universities face. He said that statistics show that record numbers of Scotland-domiciled students are going to Scottish universities. That is welcome, but one problem for universities is that those students do not pay tuition fees and the Scottish Government does not fully fund their tuition—it pays only a part of the fees. The Scottish Government prevents universities from charging those students fees—I support that—but it does not provide all the funding for those students. Every additional such student is a financial burden on universities when they are under financial pressure for all sorts of reasons.

A simple and fair way of supporting universities would be for the Scottish Government to fully fund its free tuition policy. Will the minister do that?

I fully accept that further and higher education faces a range of challenges, but we are getting outstanding outcomes from our colleges and universities. I gave statistics to show the fantastic job that our universities are doing in producing graduates; likewise, our colleges are exceeding their targets for full-time-equivalent students. The Scottish Funding Council’s review is under way, and the issues that Iain Gray mentions around sustainability funding are among the reasons why I commissioned that review.

There has always been cross-subsidisation within our universities. Overall, the rate of full economic cost recovery is higher in Scotland than it is in the rest of the UK, although I accept that, within that, the figure for the teaching element is below that in the rest of the UK. Iain Gray rightly highlights that that figure is well below 100 per cent. Part of the thinking now is about how we address that, and that forms part of the SFC’s review.

We are, of course, taking the universities’ budget submission into account. I do not have to tell you that a 20 per cent increase in the universities budget is a huge ask and, given the state of public finances in Scotland, a very tall order. However, we are taking on board the overall pressures that the sector faces.

Does the minister really need a review to tell him that it would be only fair for the Scottish Government to fully fund its own free tuition policy?

We invest well over £200 million every year in free tuition in higher education, which benefits our students in Scotland. There is a fee of £1,820 for each place that we fund in universities. Over and above that, the teaching element in the Scottish Funding Council is brought in for each student. Depending on the course that is being studied, there are different groups of payments. All the groups of payments were increased by 1.7 per cent for this year, so there was a slight increase in the teaching element provided to our universities.

We have maintained more than £1 billion a year for higher education in Scotland in the face of 10 years of austerity and the other financial challenges that we are facing. There is tomorrow’s budget coming, too.

I wish to ask the minister about the guidance on essential attendance by staff and students. Do you think that any additional guidance is needed? In your opening remarks, you said that you expect institutions to look after students’ wellbeing. Is expecting them to do that enough? Do you think that they have enough guidance on that?

The universities have assured us that they are making a huge effort to support those students who are staying on campus at the moment, as well as those who are in the very few situations in which face-to-face teaching is proceeding, to ensure that that is extremely safe. Of course, there is guidance on that. There is no evidence that face-to-face teaching is not safe, in terms of the pandemic. The overall approach to students returning to university and college relates to transmission of the virus.

I think that the guidance that we have is satisfactory—I have not received significant feedback since we published it. We have regular discussions with the trade unions as well as with the institutions and student representative bodies. I understand that the situation is evolving all the time, and I hope that the guidance is working well and that the universities are abiding by it. We stay in close contact with them, and, if that is not the case, people are not shy in coming forward.

Do we have a complete picture nationally, or are some institutions better than others at dealing with the situation? Are any of them having difficulty with it?

Clearly, universities and colleges are anxious about students’ ability to complete courses and qualifications. The current guidance reflects the national lockdown that we are in just now, so it is a very difficult issue. We will have to consider carefully any future guidance, as the lockdown will be reviewed. I understand that the Scottish Government will say more about education next week, which will give more clarity to schools and, indeed, to colleges and universities.

We are in a really difficult place at the moment. Clearly, colleges and universities are anxious about the impact on learning, and we have to balance that with protecting people’s health, so we are keeping the situation under constant review.

I will ask about rent rebates. I have been stopped in the street by families who are locked into contracts for university accommodation. They want to support their children as much as possible, but they do not know whether they should continue the contracts, in the hope that there will be an opportunity to return to campus later this year, or whether they should give them up. What is your advice to students and families in that situation? What is being considered to help students to cope with private contracts this year?

I welcome the decisions that have been made so far by many universities to refund or cancel rents or to allow people to get out of their contracts, even without giving 28 days’ notice, which is helping tens of thousands of students across Scotland. Of course, each university is autonomous and we cannot dictate to them how to run their buildings and accommodation blocks. However, they are doing their best to help people, and we discussed earlier the financial impact of their doing that—they are clearly doing it although it is costing them.

In the past few days, we have written again to other providers of student accommodation in Scotland, asking them to ensure that they are being sympathetic and helpful, and pointing out the guidance to them. With regard to private landlords, I accept absolutely that that is a difficult situation for families. There is a myriad of circumstances, and many students are still in private accommodation while others are not. It is difficult, even for the universities and institutions, to have a picture of who is still living in a private rented flat and who is not. My advice to families is to download the guidance about students not returning to campus and to send it to their private landlords. I know constituents who have done that and secured a significant discount on their rent for a few months. I can only urge students to speak to their institutions and to take advice from them—they should be very sympathetic—and those in private rented flats to ensure that they show the guidance to their landlords to try to get a discount or rebate. Those who are experiencing financial difficulties should apply for the hardship funds.

That is helpful. Daniel Johnson touched on the issue that I want to raise about students returning to courses that involve practical elements. Unsurprisingly, some are not keen to return, but they are worried about being penalised for missing parts of the course. Have universities been asked to be sympathetic to students who want to delay in-person elements of their courses? Is there an assurance that there will be no detriment to students who want or need to stay at home?

The institutions have said that they will do their utmost to ensure that no student is disadvantaged by the pandemic. Clearly, they face a challenge with those courses for which, quite simply, students must complete practical or face-to-face teaching elements before they can qualify. We cannot have students graduating from college to fit gas boilers unless they have actually dismantled and put back together a gas boiler—they cannot do that online. The same is true for some of the university courses that we have spoken about.

Those are the difficult issues that we face, particularly in colleges, where there is a lot more practical work required for qualifications, but also in universities, for some of those courses for which there are face-to-face requirements. I have set up the task force to bring the agencies, the institutions, student representatives and trade unions around the table to consider what needs to be done to help all students in Scotland to complete their learner journey. When we look at the options, everything will have to be on the table, because we are in an unprecedented—I hate to use that word over and over—situation. I have no doubt that the solutions will be unprecedented as well, to ensure that we can help everyone to complete their learner journey.

We will now have questions from Mr Neil.

My questions follow on from your point about the task force. As you know, Richard, the transition from school to university and/or college is an issue. Will the task force look at those students who are due to transition from school to university or college this year? Clearly, there are big challenges this year that would not normally have existed, not least of which is the fact that blended or remote learning has been in place for most of this year.

More generally, what is being done to monitor the mental health and welfare of existing students in the college and university sectors—both those who are in attendance for the reasons that you have outlined and those who are learning remotely? As for school pupils, it depends on whether they are remote learning in an overcrowded house in a poor area and without access to the equipment that other students may have, and so on. That can obviously start to drag people down. Are we monitoring the wellbeing of students as well as looking at the additional challenges of transition this year?

11:00  

Looking at the transition of pupils from school to college or university, and from college to university, is one of the key purposes of the task force that we are setting up. We recognise that there are significant challenges, not least for planning. What will the figures be? How many people will be coming? Those are significant issues, and they will be at the heart of the task force’s work. Likewise, John Swinney, as the Cabinet Secretary for Education and Skills, is looking at the schools situation and what the implications are for the senior phase.

I have to admit that one of my biggest challenges has been in monitoring and measuring the impact of remote learning on the mental health of students. We do not have a perfect way of doing that yet. I have asked the question several times, and, as I have said before, we have given more resources to institutions for mental health services, which have been warmly welcomed.

A lot of great work is going on at the coalface, with new counsellors being employed by colleges and universities over the past year or two and still being put in place, as well as through existing student welfare services. They are doing their best to reach out to students and to stay in contact with them. I have heard a variety of anecdotes from students who feel that they have been made aware of the help that is out there for their mental health, although others, of course, say that they are not aware of it. We have to keep a close eye on the impact of remote learning on the mental health of young people, and I assure Alex Neil that we raise that issue in every conversation that we have with the sector—indeed, it raises the matter with us.

Do you have any more questions, Mr Neil?

In the interests of time, I am happy to pass on.

I will take a couple of supplementary questions from Mr Greene and Mr Greer before we come to the end of our questions. If anyone else has a question, they should indicate that now.

I want to press the minister further on the money that was announced to support universities and students. I appreciate that the detail is to follow, but students will be looking for reassurance that some of that money will support them directly through rent refunds. Will you elaborate on whether the money is going to the institutions, to enable them to fund students, or whether some of it will go directly to students?

As others have mentioned, not all students live in halls of residence that are owned by universities. Many live in houses in multiple occupation, private rented accommodation or private student accommodation. They will have been away for almost four months—perhaps longer, in some cases—yet they are still under contract to those organisations. Will any of the money go to them, and how will that work in practice?

Yes, £20 million out of the £30 million that is going to hardship funds will be available to students. That will also take into account the fact that many students have not been able to work, as they have lost their part-time jobs in hospitality and so on because of the pandemic. Their financial situation is compounded by the fact that they have less income because of that, yet they are paying rent for accommodation that they might not be using, have not been able to get a refund for, or whatever. We are asking the institutions to be as flexible as possible.

You are correct in saying that we made an announcement yesterday of money that is coming out of this financial year. Over the coming days, more detail will be worked up to give some guidance to colleges and universities about the funding.

As I mentioned, I have spoken to many teams that are working at the coalface on student hardship issues, and the committee may wish to take evidence from some of them. It is fascinating to speak to them—they are extremely passionate about what they do and are busting a gut to help students. They are doing an amazing job, and I pay credit to them.

As I said, we are giving the institutions some flexibility. Given that we are talking about a significant amount of money on top of the other hardship resources that are already in the system, including the £5 million that we announced before Christmas, I expect that it will be helping many students who have rent issues and their families.

Thank you. That is helpful.

We all commend the great work that is being done on the ground in colleges and universities, especially the good work of NUS Scotland. As you know, its survey was quite worrying, because it showed that, even at the moment, a quarter of students are simply unable to pay their rent and around a third are unable to pay their bills. My concern, which I hope others share, is that we will see students drop out and give up on their further or higher education. Has there been any analysis of the effects of Covid on participation and drop-out rates or on the number of those who are taking up further or higher education next year? Has the minister had any thoughts about how we can support those on the ground who need money today or yesterday rather than in the weeks and months ahead?

I expect the new hardship fund money to be made available and out the door quickly—that will be in our guidance. We do not put many conditions on the funding. There are conditions relating to due diligence, but we give the institutions flexibility in how they use the funds. The funds are discretionary; therefore, to a significant degree, decisions on whom to give the money to and how to allocate it are in the hands of the institutions.

It is difficult to measure the number of student withdrawals and the number of young people who are being put off going into further and higher education in the future. We have discussed the matter with colleges, which have been giving us warning signs that they are worried about deferrals and certain cohorts of students becoming disengaged from college. The longer the students learn at home, the more they feel disengaged and might drop out. We are asking the colleges to keep us up to date with that information. We do not have a specific picture at the moment—the latest lockdown is only a few weeks old—but the information will become available in due course. We must do our best to support students while they are learning remotely.

With regard to the Government’s overall pandemic policy, we have to protect people’s health and balance the harms going forward. As the Minister for Further Education, Higher Education and Science, I am conveying to my colleagues in Government the harms in further and higher education, and one of the harms that we must try to avoid is young people becoming disengaged.

As Colleges Scotland gives us more information, we will do our best to keep the committee up to date.

That would be hugely appreciated. That data is vital in monitoring the situation on the ground.

I guess that we do not know what we do not know about the virus, but do you have any idea of when students will be able to return to face-to-face learning? It looks as though it might be March at the very earliest. When they do return, what plans does the Government have for a testing regime that will give college and university staff and students confidence that the institutions will be safe places to return to?

The question of when university and college students can return to campus is a huge one, and it is probably above my pay grade. At the moment, we are still in a challenging situation with the virus. Our initial guidance was that, from mid-February, it might be possible for more students who are on courses for which face-to-face learning is absolutely critical to go back, although we are talking about a small number of students. For other students, the general message is to stay at home until the end of February. The beginning of March is the earliest that we can anticipate beginning a further staggered return of students to colleges and universities.

I am not now in a position to say more on that. Next week, we will be in a better position to see whether the mid-February review might allow more students to go back to meeting face to face, where that is essential. We will update people on that next week.

I am trying to remember your other question—sorry.

It was on testing.

The testing regime for returning students is up and running. It is very quiet—a skeleton staff is employed in the universities at this stage and until the end of February at the earliest—but the testing is happening, and we have extended it to students who are returning and to those who have stayed on campus. Several thousand students have stayed on campus or at term-time accommodation, and they are entitled to test as well. We have extended who can get the test, and the regime is in place as we speak.

I will follow up Beatrice Wishart’s line of questioning. Can you confirm that, if a student requests the termination of their tenancy agreement under the terms of the Coronavirus (Scotland) (No 2) Act 2020, there is absolutely no need for their accommodation provider to ask them for medical advice or a note from their GP?

That is absolutely the case. We have made that clear in the frequently asked questions section on the Student Information Scotland website, which we updated in the past few days. I advise all students and their families to use Student Information Scotland and its website, where they will find the guidance as well the frequently asked questions.

It is unacceptable for any accommodation provider to ask for doctors’ notes or any other evidence that the pandemic is the reason why a student wants to withdraw from their lease. Providers should be sympathetic and should just accept the word of a student that the pandemic is the reason why they are making the request.

You will be aware that a number of colleges—in particular, Forth Valley College—are converting a number of their lecturer positions into instructor positions or some variation on that. They are, in essence, asking the same people to do the same job but for less pay and with weaker terms and conditions. Have you engaged with colleges on that specific issue, and are you concerned about the effect that that will have on a lecturing workforce that is already under immense pressure, for obvious reasons?

I have spoken to the Scottish Funding Council about that, and I have asked it to give me a report on it, to see whether the professional standing of lecturers in our colleges is being affected negatively by some colleges employing more instructors. The SFC will get back to me with its opinion on whether it is having that impact.

We want to support the position of lecturer being a professional position in our colleges of further education. Of course, colleges have always employed instructors, who are often people from workplace environments who have skills to pass on but who are not lecturers. However, in the light of the concerns that have been expressed to me by the trade unions, which have already met to discuss the issue, it is important that we have an assurance from the Scottish Funding Council that the practice is not having any negative impact on the lecturing profession in further education.

That is very interesting to hear. When are you due to receive the SFC’s report?

I am very encouraged by the SFC’s review, which I think is going to be quite radical. We have seen the phase 1 report, in which the SFC published many of the themes that the consultation brought out. Some exciting themes have been identified by institutions and other observers and commentators who have submitted their views about the future of further, higher and tertiary education in Scotland.

The phase 2 report is due to be published next month, and I hope that that will still happen. The Scottish Funding Council has been absolutely snowed under because of the pandemic, so that deadline might slip slightly. However, I am sure that it will keep the committee up to date.

I thank the minister and his officials for their attendance today.

11:15 Meeting continued in private until 11:52.