Chamber and committees

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?

Thank you for raising the issue, which you previously raised on 1 October, when I last attended the committee. Beyond what I have done in the past few months, I am keen to engage with as many colleges and universities as I can in the new year. I have had helpful correspondence with UHI in the past few months since my appointment on 23 September. Unfortunately, because of parliamentary business and other commitments, I have not had the capacity to engage fully with all parties involved in this matter. However, I hope that you can take it in good faith that I want to do that in the new year. I will seek to engage with you personally as a member with an interest in the issue, and more widely with the committee, too, if that is helpful. I do not have anything to add beyond what I said on 1 October, which, in the interest of time, I do not think is worth stating again.

I would be interested to hear those perspectives, if it is practical. I have sought to engage as widely as I could since I was appointed on 23 September, and it is important for all of us in politics to hear different perspectives and perceptions. I would certainly be interested in that.

I endorse everything that the cabinet secretary just said. We need to consider the issue collectively and in the broader context. The ambition is fair access for everyone who wants to go to university and whom university is right for, and, in recent days, the commissioner and I have talked about that in relation to widening access.

From what I have heard around the committee table, in previous engagement in Parliament and certainly from stakeholders, I feel that we collectively want to lead a shift in social consciousness whereby people undertake the pathway that is right for them. Genuine parity of esteem needs to be realised by moving away from any sense of hierarchy of achievement. Of course, different qualifications require different demands, skills, talents and abilities, but the most enrichment for the individual and for all of society together would be getting to the point of parity of esteem, whereby people feel empowered to proudly drive forward in the area that is right for them.

That wider context is important in relation to Withers and what we are trying to do with apprenticeships.

Adam Reid wants to inform the committee about that.