Chamber and committees

From the comments that university principals made at the Education, Children and Young People Committee, it is clear that the university sector in Scotland has become overreliant on international students. Given the increasing global uncertainty, what assessment have the First Minister and the Scottish Government made of the financial exposure and risk that our institutions face?

I have been really taken with the success of school-college partnerships, whereby younger people can get a taste of college. The committee has been doing work in relation to barriers to education and supporting people who are furthest away from training opportunities. We know that we have lost more than 100,000 college places. What does the picture look like for offering opportunities to people who are not going to university and are not necessarily getting one of those college places? From what we have heard, it sounds as if the situation with credits has not changed or is only getting worse. The models that we have developed, which have been successful in getting people into university, will need to start with the college opportunities. I do now want to put words into your mouth, so what does the picture actually look like?

Andy Witty, do you have a figure for or an analysis of the clawback from the Government that the university sector is currently facing? I do not know whether individuals have that figure for their own institutions or whether there is a wider sector figure—that money is allocated to deliver education and the Government is asking for it back. What does that figure look like?

I will bring in Professor Powell in a second.

You touched on the north-east. I met with North East Scotland College quite recently to have a conversation about the fantastic new campus that it is opening and about net zero and the just transition. It will have to stick to its credit numbers, though, so the resources for any new courses that it will offer will have to come from the original courses, which seems ridiculous, given the skills shortages. I believe that there was recently a conference in the Highlands where representatives of the renewables sector said, “These are all the shortages in skills that we know are coming, but very little is happening.” I do not know why, given the skills shortages that we are aware of, the Scottish Government is not providing additional capacity or bringing the private sector in to help fund that using a different model, because that just seems like common sense.

I will bring you in now, Professor Powell.

Sorry, that figure relates to all the private sector investment that has gone into the college sector—most of it has gone to Ayrshire College.

That is helpful. Any data that the sector can give us would be appreciated.

Vicki Nairn, do you have a figure that you can put on record?

I want to pick up on some of Angela Cox‘s comments, because it is important to look at other funding models. I do not have the figures to hand, but I think that Ayrshire College has attracted around 40 per cent of all private sector investment into the college sector. That probably relates to the partnership with Prestwick airport. There is a great opportunity for the sector to build relationships, through which a different model could be developed.

We see the pressures that the education sector, especially the university sector, faces at the moment, and money is not available from the Government. Where do the panel members feel that there could be a different funding model? The sector obviously sits within the education portfolio, but would the economic development portfolio be more appropriate? We must think more radically about where the college sector needs to be regarding its parity of esteem with the university sector, and not have a situation where 100,000 places have been lost and it is seen as the poor relation. My conclusion is that after 18 years, that is what has happened.

Even though cancer is the leading cause of disease-related death in children and young people under the age of 25, members of that group often face significant barriers to a timely cancer diagnosis, either because of misdiagnosis or because they have exhibited vague or non-specific symptoms. They often have to visit their general practitioner or other health providers multiple times before being referred and diagnosed.

Despite those challenges, Scottish Government initiatives to support early diagnosis, such as rapid diagnostic centres, are typically focused on older Scots and adults rather than on children and young people. Given the clear need for earlier and more accurate diagnosis of people in that age group, what action is the Government taking to address that gap?

To ask the Scottish Government what assessment it has made of the eligibility criteria for rapid cancer diagnostic services, including the rationale for them usually only being available to those over the age of 18, in light of any unique challenges faced by children and young people being diagnosed with cancer. (S6O-04815)